Since its second generation, the Zengin System has been updated every eight years. This implied the eighth generation was scheduled for November 2027, and the ninth generation for 2035.
At the board meeting held this week, it was decided to begin development of the next (8th) Zengin System, with a scheduled go live in May 2028.
The 8th Zengin System will be updated from the conventional mainframe to an open system to ensure scalability and to respond flexibly to more advanced systems. In addition, in light of the increasingly severe disasters and the growing threat of global cyber attacks, BCP and cybersecurity measures will be further strengthened to create a resilient system suitable for Japan’s critical payment infrastructure.
Furthermore, in light of the measures to improve and prevent recurrence of the RC23 series failure in October last year, it was decided to adopt a migration method in which the current 7th Zengin System and the 8th Zengin System will be operated in parallel during the system migration, and in the unlikely event that a malfunction occurs in the 8th Zengin System, there will be the ability to immediately switch back to the 7th Zengin System, allowing for continuous business operations without affecting users. The official start date will be announced separately, taking into account the progress of development and test results.
While the title graphic depicts the “Grand Plan” for the overall system architecture, prioritization for the 2027 led to the following approach.
The objective for the eighth-generation Zengin System is to contribute to improving the convenience for participants and users by simultaneously achieving at a high level
- “Safety” to maintain a high level of safety and service of the current system,
- “Efficiency” to improves the cost efficiency of participants by terminating or streamlining unused/excessive functions and enjoy cost-related benefits over the medium to long term, and
- “Flexibility” to be capable of responding to future changes in the environment
In addition, Zengin-Net decided in September 2022 to expand the qualification for participation in the Zengin System to include funds transfer service providers (i.e., non-banks). The decision came with the commitment to develop a new connection method using an application programming interface (API Gateway), which awas expected to be developed while the current seventh-generation Zengin System is in operation, in July 2025. It is under these modified participation criteria that Wise has been approved for direct Zengin access as the first non-bank.
While in theory, the process from application for membership in the Zengin System to the start of the connection was deemed to take at least 14 months, i.e. the first funds transfer service providers could have been onboarded by the end of 2023, in practice the expectation is that such companies will depend on the availability of the API Gateway to join.
The development of API Gateway was progressing with a target launch date of July 2025. Detailed design work had begun in September last year, but the project was temporarily halted due to the system outage. With the issue addressed and reoccurrence prevention measures implemented, the launch date was revised to November 2025 to ensure the project’s smooth completion.