Learn in the textbookLaws on Fair Trade, Finance, and Product Liability
DefinitionThe Payment Services Act (資金決済法) is the law that sets up provider registration and user protection for payment and money-transfer services offered by businesses other than banks.
ExplanationIt covers prepaid payment instruments, where value bought in advance is used for later payments; the funds transfer business, where non-bank businesses handle money transfers; and the crypto-asset exchange business, which handles buying, selling and exchanging crypto-assets (under an amendment enacted in July 2026, the regulation of crypto-asset trading is moving to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act). Issuers of prepaid payment instruments must protect users' funds even if the issuer fails, for example by depositing part of the unused balance with an official depository.
AnalogyThese are rules that watch over the containers of value used in place of cash, and the channels that carry money, so the money does not vanish or get run off with along the way.
Memory hookKessai in its Japanese name means settling a payment. Reading the name as the law on ways to pay and send money makes its scope easy to grasp.