Welcome to the Professionals series, where we feature the talented professionals working at the PayPay Group. In this installment, we spoke with Akiko Imatsuji from the Anti-Financial Crime Department, who is in charge of risk investigation and planning. She gave us an in-depth look at her career to date, her work at PayPay, and a project that left a lasting impression.
Akiko Imatsuji
Risk Research & Planning Team, Anti-Financial Crime Department, Legal & Compliance Division, Legal & Risk Group
After graduating, she began her career at a trust bank, where she was involved in IT governance, fund management, and accounting reporting within the IT control and back-office departments. Subsequently, she engaged in anti-money laundering and financial crime countermeasures, including third-party fraud, in a department focused on fraud prevention. She joined PayPay in September 2021.
Blown Away by PayPay’s In-House Development
What is your current department and what are your responsibilities?
I am currently in the Anti-Financial Crime Department, where I am responsible for risk investigation and planning in the area of “third-party fraud”—that is, unauthorized use of a user’s account. My goal is to properly implement anti-money laundering, counter-financing of terrorism, and anti-fraud measures at PayPay. This, of course, serves to protect PayPay users from risk, but as the leading company in the code payment market, I also want to do work that helps build trust in Japan’s entire financial system.
Could you tell us about your career?
I joined a trust bank straight out of university, where I was engaged in IT governance and back-office operations. Later, I moved to a fraud prevention department, where I became involved in anti-money laundering and third-party fraud countermeasures. I found it rewarding to build systems that protect users by combining my knowledge of IT and financial crime. However, at a workplace where job rotation and promotion to management were the norm, I struggled with my desire to master this field as a specialist.
What led you to switch to PayPay?
It all started when I was discussing my career concerns with a friend who recommended PayPay, where she worked. I had never used PayPay. To be honest, I even wondered, “Is this service really trustworthy?”
However, at the time, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the main topic of discussion at my previous job was whether we should install plexiglass barriers in the office to prevent infection. Meanwhile, I heard that PayPay had quickly introduced a hybrid work style and had its own product division to build its systems in-house. I was blown away by their speed, operational efficiency, and forward-thinking approach. I was also drawn to the incredibly high IT literacy of all employees and the environment where I could master technology-driven fraud countermeasures. I decided to take the plunge and challenge myself at PayPay.
Succeeded in Reducing Man-Hours by Over 90% by Automating Routine Tasks
Could you tell us about a recent project?
It was a project to streamline the process of creating reports on PayPay transaction statuses, which we conduct under legal regulations. We were required to prepare these reports in a specific format designated by the authorities, and previously, this was a 100% manual process. Creating the reports required a deep understanding of PayPay’s services and transaction flows to compile the information according to the requirements. The volume was also enormous, and during busy periods, dedicated team members would spend all day monitoring hundreds of transactions to keep up with the reporting.
To change this situation, we worked on creating an EUC (End-User Computing) tool with the goal of semi-automating the report generation process. The area I focused on most was “visualizing my thought process.” I organized and wrote down all the unconscious data conversions, combinations, conditional branches, and processes I was performing in my head. This task alone took up more than half of the total effort. Furthermore, since PayPay has multiple balance types, such as PayPay Money and PayPay Money Lite, we went through a lot of trial and error in defining them.
When creating the EUC, I paid special attention to three points: “making the data easy to view and maintain,” “minimizing the damage from rework and corrections,” and “not letting the processing logic become a black box.” Ultimately, the completed tool delivered results in both operational efficiency and risk reduction, successfully reducing the man-hours for reporting tasks by over 90%. The time we saved has allowed us to provide more detailed responses to new service risk assessments and inquiries from various departments, and I am proud to say that we have contributed to creating a safe and secure service.
In what ways do you feel you’ve grown through this project?
I believe my ability to verbalize my thoughts has grown. From the perspective of operational efficiency, the process of visualizing the unconscious tasks and thoughts in existing operations and implementing them into a system is essential. It also served as training to deepen my understanding of PayPay’s services and to articulate and apply that knowledge. I feel that I can leverage this experience as we move forward with AI utilization, such as using AI to simulate risks in our services.
What is the best part of working at PayPay?
It’s being able to take proactive anti-fraud measures as the industry’s leading company. There are times when fraud attacks that PayPay was wary of early on later become a social issue, and I get to feel firsthand that “we protected our users with measures that were ahead of the curve,” and “I was a part of that!”
I also sense that the world is interested in us, asking, “Why is PayPay’s fraud incidence rate so low?” and “What kind of measures do you usually take?” and that PayPay’s every move is being closely watched within the industry. There are difficulties and pressures in planning without precedent, but the reward of creating industry standards by leveraging technology is immense.
Financial Crime Prevention as the Mixed Martial Arts of Our Field
What are your future goals and vision?
As I am in a position to protect our users, I want to be thoroughly prepared for any eventuality. In order to respond swiftly and appropriately in the event of an emergency, I study the latest fraud cases and countermeasures, and aim to incorporate them into PayPay to provide a safer and more secure service.
Do you have a message for our readers?
The work of the Anti-Financial Crime Department is, so to speak, mixed martial arts. It requires compliance with laws and guidelines, a complete understanding of in-house systems, data, and service operations, and the ability to implement measures according to the situation. Our work is never completed within our own department; close collaboration with other departments is essential. While we take the utmost care not to impede business growth, we sometimes propose measures that may even run counter to UI/UX. It’s an environment that demands tenacity, sincerity, and a sense of balance to carefully explain risks to the members planning the business and gain their understanding.
However, we are not tackling these difficult challenges alone. Our team brings together professionals from various fields—experts in laws and guidelines, systems, and data analysis—who collaborate and exchange ideas.
If you are motivated to contribute to building safe and secure services and organizations by leveraging technology based on a deep understanding of laws and guidelines; if you can logically organize issues based on facts and explain solutions to those around you; if you respect others, have a strong desire for self-improvement, and can overcome difficulties with a positive attitude—then we would love to work with you.
*Job openings and employee affiliations are current as of the time of the interview.