Yahoo: Banking Today, Payments Tomorrow?

If Yahoo Japan's most recent attempt at starting a joint venture and taking a position in an online bank succeeds, it could be a testing ground for establishing an online payment service. Everyone in Japan seems to want to take deposits from customers. Sony and 7-11 both own virtual banks in the country, Reuters NetBank will receive a call from Terry Semel, seeking to open discussions about a venture similar to that of Yahoo Japan and SMFG. The purely online NetBank would benefit from the influx of business from Yahoo's users, while Yahoo would receive more favorable payment processing terms. A joint venture should be simpler than writing a payment system from the ground up to compete with PayPal and Google Payments, too. Tag: Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") | Yahoo! My Web Drag this to your Bookmarks. David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.