Today, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, or TSE, made an announcement. The announcement was that the exchange had revoked its approval for GMO Financial Gate’s initial listing on its platform.

Applying For Listing, Then Applying For Delisting

The TSE had given the initial approval for GMO Financial Gate back in March of 2020, doing so after the company filed an application to do so. Today, however, the TSE stated that its approval had been withdrawn, once more based on an application that the company had filed.

GMO Financial Gate, or GMO-FG, stands as a subsidiary of GMO Internet Inc. The company had made a comment about the matter as a whole, explaining that the decision to cancel the offering of new shares and the sales thereof was made. This decision came from the Board of Directors meeting that was held on the 10th of April, 2020, with the Board agreeing to cancel the listing altogether.

COVID-19 Attributed As Cause

The decision was made after deliberations regarding various circumstances, as well as the guidance of the company’s lead manager. Further factors included the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the overall lack of visibility in regards to Japan’s containment efforts. This comes after the company had considered the details of the declaration of an emergency situation within the country.

The company stated that it has the intent of doing a comprehensive assessment in regards to the circumstances as a whole. These circumstances include the trends occurring within the equity markets. Once the right timing has been determined, the company will resume its listing procedures.

GMO-FG is a payment processing services provider, allowing users to enact offline payments such as the kinds you do with debit or credit cards.

Far Reaching Effects

In regards to the original reasoning as to why to list the shares of GMO-FG, GMO Internet explained back in march that GMO-FG’s business opportunities within the offline market have experienced significant expansion. This expansion is attributed to the Japanese government striving to improve the security of cashless payment systems, as well as increasing the overall penetration of cashless transactions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching consequences all across the world, just from the fear alone. As countries started to shut down, it sent their economies in a definite downward trend. Everything is compounding the next issue, at this point, and the quicker this virus is beaten, the quicker the world can recover from 2020.