Olive is the world's first, so why does no one copy it? The alternative answer of the super app
To be honest, I haven't switched my Olive mode for a while either.
In the first week after creating the account, I was excited and tapped away, switching between debit and point payments. Now, I can't even remember what mode I left it on without checking. I think that's true for many people. There is a deep valley between "interesting" and "using it to the fullest." Olive perfectly satisfies the former, but barely reaches the latter.
This is not because the features are poor. It is quite the opposite. The mechanism underlying Olive is so well-crafted that anyone following the payment industry would be impressed. In this article, I will first properly praise that. Then, I want to unravel why, despite that, no one follows it, and why we don't end up switching, as a matter of structure.
Let me state the conclusion first. Olive is a beautifully "correctly" built mechanism, but the answer the Japanese market provided was the super app. And that is less of a defeat and almost an inevitability.
First, just three terms
Since some payment terminology will come up, I will break down four terms first. If you know just these, you can read to the end.
The difference between credit, debit, and point payments is the timing of the payment. Credit is "pay later" (paid in a lump sum the following month), debit is "pay immediately" (deducted from the bank account on the spot), and point payment is "pay in advance" (paid with points accumulated beforehand).
Flexible Credential is the name of a mechanism created by Visa. Roughly speaking, it is a technology that allows you to "put multiple payment methods on one card and choose between them." This is the heart of Olive.
Prepaid is a type of electronic money, like Suica, where you pay with a balance you have topped up in advance. This will come up later.
A super app is an all-purpose app that combines payments and points into one. au PAY, PayPay, Rakuten Pay, and d-barai fall into this category.
First, properly praising Olive's mechanism
Many articles explain "credit, debit, and point payment on one card" as "three functions built into the card." This is half correct, but structurally a bit inaccurate. To be precise, it is like this.
Olive bundles three separate payment methods into one card and app, and the moment a payment occurs, the card company side sorts out "which one to pay with now."
This is the point: the three are even separated by their source (the company providing them). Credit is a pay-later service provided by Sumitomo Mitsui Card. Debit is an immediate withdrawal from an account provided jointly by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Sumitomo Mitsui Card. And point payment is a prepaid (a type of electronic money) mechanism called V Point Pay from Sumitomo Mitsui Card.
In other words, only point payment flies to a different product (prepaid) on a different layer than credit or debit. That is why the constraints unique to prepaid, such as not being able to use it for "highly cashable products" like Shinkansen tickets or gift certificates, appear as they are. These are limitations precisely because they come from different origins.
And the most important point: this sorting is not done by the store's register or card reader. From the store's perspective, just a single Visa payment has flowed through. The moment the payment information reaches the card company through the Visa network, it checks "which mode the user has set in the app right now" and decides where the payment goes.
This is not magic invented solely by Sumitomo Mitsui Card, but uses the Visa mechanism called "Flexible Credential" mentioned earlier. It is a general-purpose component that links multiple wallets to one card and sorts them on the card company side. And it was none other than Japan's Olive that released this as a product first in the world. In just over a year since the service started, it has exceeded 3 million accounts and has become a model for the world. It is said that about 70% of users use multiple payment methods such as debit, credit, and points.
Up to this point, it is genuinely impressive. The number mechanism, the prepaid structure, and the network-side sorting are all folded into a single simplicity for the user: "switch with a tap in the app." As payment plumbing, it is undoubtedly beautiful.
So, what is the catch?
However, there is more to this mechanism.
This is the point I most want to convey in this article.
The original design of Flexible Credential is not just about 'manually switching modes in an app.' If you read the specifications Visa has published for developers, there are several broad stages for how to decide how to pay before the payment is made. To summarize, there are three levels of intelligence.
The first stage is the manual switching method. Before using it, you choose 'Credit, Debit, or Points' yourself in the app every time. This is what Olive in Japan is putting at the forefront.
The second stage is the method of selecting per transaction. Instead of switching a persistent mode, it is like specifying the wallet for that one payment only, saying 'I'll use credit for this one.' For example, just before checkout, you set an 80,000 yen TV to credit (allowing for installments or incidental insurance) for this one transaction, and then return to your usual debit for the next purchase.
The third stage is the method of automatically allocating by rule. If you set the rules in advance, the user does not need to do anything. Specifically, you can do things like this.
Allocate by industry. Automatically set to debit for supermarkets and drugstores (to prevent overspending), and credit for home appliances and travel (where installments and insurance apply).
Allocate by amount. Automatically draw a line, such as debit for under 5,000 yen and credit for anything above that.
Fix by store. Fix subscriptions and online shopping to credit (so recurring payments don't stop without changing the number), and use point payments at convenience stores to eliminate small change.
Switch by balance. Automatically pay with points as long as you have them, and automatically drop down to debit when they run out.
Allocate by currency. Automatically use a yen account for stores in yen, and a local currency account for stores in foreign currency.
Here, I want to pause and think about what is so amazing about this.
What is amazing is that this allocation is completed in the briefest moment of payment, behind the scenes where no one can see. To use an analogy, it is as if there is only one faucet, but it is connected to multiple tanks deep inside, and there is a valve that automatically chooses which tank to draw from every time you turn it. The clerk at the register, the payment terminal, and the receipt do not know what happened. All the store sees is a single Visa payment go through. All the intelligence is hidden behind the stage.
Moreover, this mechanism works as is anywhere in the world where 'Visa is accepted.' The store side does not need to change anything. No new terminals or new contracts are required. This is a major difference from QR code payments; while QR required starting from 'increasing the number of stores where it can be used,' Flexible Credential rides on the Visa rails that are already spread across the world from the start. Therefore, no groundwork is needed to expand it.
One more thing. The allocation rules are placed on the Visa or bank side, not on the card itself, and can be rewritten later without reissuing the card. In other words, your 'payment policy' becomes an editable setting rather than plastic in your wallet. You don't need to swap cards to decide, 'From this month, travel will be on credit.'
To summarize, until now we have been forced to make a choice between two options: carry many cards in our wallet and think about which one to use every time, or find that troublesome and use one card for everything, missing out on benefits. The method of automatically allocating by rule eliminates this binary choice itself. You can pay from the perfect wallet every time without paying the cost of thinking. You get both the 'intelligence to use different cards' and the 'ease of not having to think' at the same time. This is something that was not possible with cards until now.
And the final 'allocate by currency' is not a hypothetical story. It is already in operation. The digital bank Liv in the UAE has implemented this very Flexible Credential by currency.
In addition to their home currency, the dirham, users have accounts for US dollars, pounds, euros, Canadian dollars, and Australian dollars within the app, and every time they pay, it is automatically deducted from the account that matches the currency of the transaction. For dollar-denominated payments, it comes from the dollar account; for euro-denominated, from the euro account, without the user doing anything. If the balance in the target foreign currency is insufficient, it automatically switches to dirhams. It is using six currency accounts in real-time behind a single card number.
This is the world's first implementation for multi-currency support, which officially began in February 2026. Since you don't have to go through currency exchange and its fees every time you use it abroad, it is more effective for people who use foreign currency often. In the US, a company called Affirm uses the same mechanism for a different purpose: 'switching between debit and deferred payment' instead of currency.
In other words, the UAE released the same components in the form of 'automatic allocation,' while Japan's Olive released them in the form of 'manual switching.' Even though Olive was the first in the world to commercialize this mechanism, it chose the most basic of the three stages. Moreover, it was in the most laborious form of 'manually switching a mode that lasts forever.' It was released with the most modest presentation, despite having the foundation to do the most amazing things. The snag in this article is exactly that.
Why is manual switching not used?
Here, I return to the confession at the beginning. The reason I stopped switching is not because I am lazy. There is a structural reason.
For users, choosing between payment methods is a "chore." Deciding in front of the register every time, "Is debit better here, should I use up my points, or do I need credit card insurance?" takes a surprising amount of mental effort. And any feature that increases effort stops being used the moment the initial novelty wears off.
What was truly needed was not the "ability to switch," but the "ability to not have to think." The third stage of Flexible Credential (automatic by rule) was a design that realized exactly that "not having to think," but in Japan, that aspect was not brought to the forefront.
What is interesting is that even the numbers released by card companies seem to support this. While Sumitomo Mitsui Card boasts that "70% of users switch between multiple payment methods," in the same announcement, they also state that "credit is mainly used for shopping." This is likely a story of people trying debit or points once at the beginning, using them occasionally, but settling on credit for daily life. This almost perfectly matches my own experience. Since these are the numbers presented in a way that is convenient for the company, it is natural to assume that the percentage of people who diligently switch every day is even lower.
As a feature, it is beautiful. But it does not strike at the heart of how humans use it.
No one has followed Olive
Here, I will state another clear fact. Currently, the only product in Japan that uses this Flexible Credential is Olive (Sumitomo Mitsui Card and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation). As far as has been made public, no others can be found.
This is not because "it is a special technology that only Olive can use." As I wrote earlier, these are components that Visa makes available to developers, and one can even choose whether to place the rules on the Visa side or the company's own side. Technically, any company that issues Visa cards could adopt it. Even so, in Japan, it has remained Olive-only for over two years. While there are successors abroad like Affirm (USA) and Liv (UAE), it has not spread domestically.
Moreover, the main player in the "card mechanism for specific purposes" that Visa is promoting in Japan is not Flexible Credential, but something from a different line. That would be the "Visa Installment Credential," which specializes in deferred and installment payments (so-called BNPL). Its deployment in Japan began in 2024, and a framework for supporting the introduction for fintech companies has even been prepared. While Visa is pushing a strategy of "turning card mechanisms into products" in Japan, its center of gravity is not on Flexible Credential.
Incidentally, the Sumitomo Mitsui Group and SBI are forming a new company and are planning to release the first top-tier card for Olive in Japan in the spring of 2026. This, too, is not a move that other companies are chasing, but a move by Olive to dig deeper into its own interior. It is not spreading horizontally, but growing vertically.
So, why is Flexible Credential isolated domestically? This is my interpretation, but I think the answer is "because in Japan, another method has already finished the same job."
Super apps are achieving the same goal in a different place
This leads to the topic of au PAY, PayPay, Rakuten Pay, and d-Barai.
Each company is trying to consolidate credit and barcodes into a single app, and they are also putting point cards into au PAY. This observation hits the nail on the head. The goal that super apps are aiming for is exactly the same as Flexible Credential. Reduce the number of things you carry and the number of decisions you make. Lighten your wallet.
The difference is where you do it.
Flexible Credential bundles things on the card and network side. Multiple wallets are linked to a single card, and the card company sorts them out.
Super apps bundle things on the app side. They consolidate the charge balance within the app (such as au PAY balance), linked credit cards, points, and barcode scanning onto a single screen.
The move to put Ponta into au PAY is a classic example. That eliminates the belongings and decisions of "which card to present" and "which points to collect" on the app side. It realizes "not having to think" through the app's method, not the network's.
And with this method, the job that Flexible Credential goes out of its way to do on the network side—"combining credit, debit, and prepaid into one card"—can be avoided simply by "choosing where to pay from using the balance, linked cards, and app judgment." Moreover, something close to the third stage (automatic by rule) that I wrote "Olive didn't use" can be naturally written as a program on the app side. You can make it as smart as you want, saying, "Use barcode at this store, touch here, and prioritize balance here."
The fact that flexible credentials have little traction in Japan is partly inevitable because the job of "consolidating into one" has already been finished by each company's app. The reason to go out of one's way to buy precise routing on the network side is weak to begin with.
The real reason for success is not technology, but "control"
Up to this point, it has been a story about convenience. But the reason companies choose one over the other is ultimately for a much more blunt reason. It is about who holds the overall reins, and who keeps the regular customers for data and points.
When bundling on the app side, the control to decide "where to pay from," the data on who spent how much on what, and the regular customers of the point ecosystem remain in the hands of the company that bundled them (the platformer).
When shifting to flexible credentials, that control shifts to the side of Visa and the card companies.
Payment in Japan is truly a battle between companies that "want to be the ones doing the bundling." Each economic zone does not want to let go of the control at the entrance, which is the app. That is why, structurally, they want to choose to consolidate with their own apps. The reason Olive is isolated is not because the product is poorly made, but because the market has reached a different conclusion regarding "where to bundle" and "who holds the reins."
Conclusion
Let's summarize.
The mechanism of Olive is beautiful as payment plumbing. It folds three separate payment methods into the simplicity of a single card for the user, on top of Visa's flexible credential. As the world's first practical application, that achievement is genuine.
However, several reasons overlap. It did not use most of the original power of flexible credentials (choosing per transaction, automatic routing by rules), but instead brought the most troublesome "manual switching" to the forefront. Since that manual operation is work for humans, it is not used once the novelty wears off. What was sought was not "switching" but "not having to think." And the same goal of "consolidating into one" has already been achieved by super apps on the app side. Furthermore, the dynamics surrounding control and data drive Japanese companies toward their own apps.
Therefore, while praising Olive, I conclude as follows: Structurally, the super app is more correct in Japan. The fact that Olive is lonely is not a failure, but an answer provided by the market structure.
Flexible credentials and super apps are climbing the same mountain of "reducing possessions and decisions" via different routes. The difference is whether you climb on the network side or the app side. And in Japan, at least for now, the slope is gentler on the app-side route.
Finally, as someone who has been watching payments, just one thing. The beauty of technology and a design that is used by humans are different skills. Olive won in the world with the former. The one that won in Japan with the latter was the super app, which was plain, a bit commercial, and yet properly delivered on "not having to think." Payment is a means, not an end. If so, it is probably correct that a design that reaches the goal (making things easy) straight on wins.
References/Sources
Visa Developer "Visa Flex Credential" (Selection of payment method per transaction, automatic routing by rules, real-time routing recommendations, etc. Primary information on specifications)
https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/visa-flexible-credential
https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/visa-flexible-credential/docs-how-toVisa "Visa Flexible Credential" product page (Mechanism to consolidate multiple wallets into one, comments on 1 million accounts in 6 months since the start of Sumitomo Mitsui Card)
https://www.visa.com/en-us/products/flex-credentialBusinessWire (Japanese) "Visa's Flexible Credential expands globally" (Over 3 million Olive accounts, 70% use multiple payment methods, shopping is mainly credit. Expansion of US Affirm, UAE Liv, Liv's automatic currency routing)
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241112840875/jaPayment Navi "Will the service that started with Japan's 'Olive' spread to Asia and the world?"
https://paymentnavi.com/paymentnews/153171.htmlPR TIMES/Visa "Visa launches BNPL-exclusive credential in Japan for the first time" (Visa Installment Credential)
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000263.000006846.htmlSumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation "Olive Flexible Pay" Official (The separation of providers: credit is Sumitomo Mitsui Card, debit is the bank and card company, point payment is V-Point Pay, and prepaid usage limits)
https://www.smbc.co.jp/kojin/olive-account/flexible-pay/Nikkei "Sumitomo Mitsui to offer asset management to the mass affluent via 'Olive'; new company with SBI" (Top-tier card for Olive coming in spring 2026)
https://www.nikkei.com/Wikipedia "Visa" (Description stating that Olive is the implementation of flexible credentials in Japan)
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa
This article is the author's personal analysis based on publicly available information and does not represent the views of any specific financial institution or business operator.