Case Study: Mitsubishi UFJ NICOS Co., Ltd. achieves sub‑2‑second, secure, low‑cost POS credit‑card settlements with Akamai Technologies

Mitsubishi NICOS leverages Akamai to accelerate and protect its Internet-based credit-card POS system

Mitsubishi UFJ NICOS, Japan’s largest credit-card company with about 17.3 million cardholders and ¥8,621.6 billion in annual transaction volume, developed J-Mups, a cloud-based next-generation POS settlement system to replace a legacy analog/ISDN infrastructure dating from 1983. The legacy system was slow (56–64 Kbps, 10–15 seconds per transaction), costly for small retailers (POS terminals ≈ ¥200k–300k and per-transaction telecom charges), and lacked scalability for new payment types; J-Mups aimed to cut processing to under two seconds, lower telecom costs, and reduce terminal prices.

To meet those goals Mitsubishi UFJ NICOS used the Akamai Intelligent Platform to route small but critical settlement messages over the public Internet to reliable edge servers, ensuring fast, secure, and stable sessions. Tests confirmed consistent performance; after launch merchants reported much faster, cheaper settlements, simpler problem diagnosis and handling, and stronger trust in the system—while the platform also positions J-Mups for future mobile payment expansion.

Mitsubishi UFJ NICOS Co., Ltd.

Kenichi Kumada

Deputy Manager, Acquiring Business Development Department