Contract Win with Kyodai Remittance

19 March 2014

Earthport plc

("Earthport", the "Company" or the "Group")

Contract Win with Kyodai Remittance

Selected by Japan's leading remittances provider to expand its international payments reach

Earthport (AIM: EPO.L), the cross-border payments services provider, is pleased to today announce that Kyodai Remittance, Japan's leading remittances provider, has signed a 3 year contract and has gone live with its service. Revenues from this deal, although not expected to be immediately significant, will add to the second half of the current calendar year and beyond. It also marks the early stages of our expansion into the Asia Pacific region

Through Earthport's market-leading international payments service, Kyodai Remittance will expand its consumer offering to Europe, the US and rest of the world. Kyodai Remittance currently offers payments to Latin America and South East Asia and is strategically offering more corridors to remitters in Japan. In addition, Kyodai Remittance will utilise Earthport's platform to enter the business to business (B2B) market.

The agreement will enable Kyodai Remittance to improve efficiency and predictability of its payments, grow its footprint in the market and deliver an enhanced customer experience. Earthport's proven white-label payments service already provides these benefits to a wide range of customers globally.

This is the second deal to be signed through Earthport's partner, Global Winning Technologies Corporation (GWT). Based in Tokyo, GWT provides banks, hedge funds and securities firms with an extensive portfolio of advanced software solutions.

According to World Bank, the global market for remittances continues to grow and by 2016 is estimated to reach over $700 billion with a projected average annual growth rate between 2013 and 2016 of over 8 percent (The World Bank: 'Migration and Remittance Flows: Recent Trends and Outlook, 2013-2016'). 

Yuichiro Kimoto, President and CEO at Kyodai Remittance, said: "Kyodai Remittance's mission is to provide a fast, convenient and seamless service to our customer base across Japan. The agreement with Earthport forms part of our strategy for growth and will allow us to enter new markets such as that for B2B payments. The payments market offers us many new and exciting opportunities. Using Earthport's cross-border payment service we are better placed to explore them."

Hank Uberoi, CEO of Earthport, commented: "We are delighted to add to our client base in Japan. We are just beginning our expansion into Asia Pacific which is of strategic importance to Earthport given the significant amount of cross border payment corridors within this region.

"We are witnessing an era of change within the finance world, where financial institutions are choosing to assemble best of breed solutions from innovative technology providers to enhance their position in an increasingly competitive and regulated environment."

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About Kyodai Remittance

Kyodai Remittance is the brand name of Unidos. Co, Ltd. Unidos was established in 2000 to support home money transfer for the Peruvian community in Japan. Under the Funds Settlement Act in 2010,

Unidos was registered as a money transfer company (Registration: Money Transfer Agent Kanto Regional Financial Bureau 00004) and started the service "KYODAI REMITTANCE" for all nationalities in Japan to all destinations in the world.

Since then, Unidos has provided a fast and safe remittance service to customers built around confidence, respect, know-how and experience. Unidos' greatly diversified international staff communicate directly to each community in its own language and demonstrate a key understanding of differing cultures.

The company's headquarters are in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan. A face-to-face remittance service is provided in 11 locations in Japan so far. For more information, please visit www.kyodairemittance.com. 

About Earthport

Earthport plc, a regulated global financial services organisation, specialises in the provision of a white label cross-border payments service.

Through its innovative payments framework, specifically designed for high volumes of low value cross-border payments, Earthport provides a cost-effective and transparent service for secure international payments. Earthport's clients include banks, money transfer organisations, payment aggregators, e-commerce and foreign exchange businesses. Through Earthport's well established payments infrastructure, clients can clear and settle payments directly to banked beneficiaries in 60 countries.

The company is headquartered in London and is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) on the London Stock Exchange. It operates globally with additional regional offices in Dubai and New York. Earthport plc is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Service Regulations 2009 for the provision of payment services. To learn more, please visit www.earthport.com and follow us via RSS or on social channels, Twitter @Earthport, LinkedIn, Youtube and Slideshare.