Global fintech company Hecto Financial is teaming up with an affiliate of Japan’s top eSIM operator to target the prepaid payment infrastructure market for foreign tourists.

Hecto Financial said on Monday it signed an exclusive contract with K&2P, the operator of Moripay, a prepaid payment service for Japanese visitors to South Korea, and will officially launch the service for the summer holiday season.

Prepaid top-up cards have recently become a must-have item among foreign tourists visiting South Korea. They can address high overseas card payment fees, the inconvenience of exchanging and carrying cash, and limits on using public transportation in one go.

Moripay’s parent company, Kanagawa, sells more than 1 million eSIMs a year in the Japanese market for destinations including South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia. Hecto Financial plans to bundle Moripay at the point of eSIM purchase to maximise a “pre-marketing” effect by helping tourists secure a payment method before arriving in South Korea.

Hecto Financial will oversee Moripay’s prepaid infrastructure, from building domestic and overseas top-up systems to issuance, management and settlement. It said this is possible because it is the only domestic company that holds all payment methods including easy cash payments, credit cards and mobile phone payments, and has also internalised foreign exchange operations through a recently secured small overseas remittance licence.

The two companies plan to expand infrastructure to major tourist countries in Southeast Asia, including Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand, starting with the Japan model, to build an “integrated Asian payment belt”.

The Korea Tourism Organization said annual total spending by foreign tourists visiting South Korea last year reached about 30 trillion won and has been growing as spending sets new record highs each year. Hecto Financial has a strategy of pre-empting the payment gateway in this large travel commerce market.

Choi Jong-won (최종원), CEO of Hecto Financial, said the company is accelerating work to build infrastructure to pre-empt the 30 trillion won-a-year travel payment market. He said it will build a private-sector global payments and remittance network through various global partnerships and rapidly increase its dominance in the global market based on that.