Gaitame Online, Inc. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Atsushi Takeuchi) announces the introduction of the Public Personal Authentication Service (JPKI) using My Number Cards for identity verification during account opening, effective from June 27, 2026 (Sat). ■ Background and Objectives At our company, enhancing the rigor of identity verification while maintaining customer convenience during online account opening procedures has been a key priority. In today's financial services environment, countermeasures against fraudulent applications and impersonation are becoming increasingly important. Alongside verification of identity documents, systems that more reliably confirm that the applicant is genuinely conducting the application process are in high demand. Furthermore, in anticipation of upcoming amendments to the regulations under the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds, it has become necessary to enhance and strengthen identity verification methods for non-face-to-face transactions. These factors have led to the introduction of this new functionality. ■ Benefits of Implementation With this introduction, customers can now use "verification by reading"—a method where the My Number Card is held against a smartphone for identity verification. This enables smoother online completion of procedures, reducing customer burden and shortening the time required to finalize account opening. Additionally, we expect that improved verification accuracy will help reduce risks of fraudulent applications and impersonation. ■ Adoption of "LIQUID eKYC" For implementing this functionality, we have adopted "LIQUID eKYC," an online identity verification service provided by Liquid Inc. We evaluated this service highly for its flexibility in regulatory compliance and operational use, as it supports multiple identity verification methods, including Public Personal Authentication (JPKI), reading IC chips on identity documents, and facial image capture. In pa