Japan’s biggest banks and regional lenders are tightening controls on the management of safe-deposit boxes after a string of thefts involving bank employees rocked public confidence.
The incidents have intensified scrutiny of a segment already grappling with weak demand and thin margins. The latest blow came last Tuesday when Mizuho Bank publicly disclosed that a former employee had stolen assets worth tens of millions of yen from two customers’ safe-deposit boxes in 2019.
While the theft had been reported to the Financial Services Agency (FSA) at the time, Mizuho Bank had kept the incident under wraps. The bank has since tightened internal controls, revising procedures for how secondary keys are managed, according to spokesperson Naohiro Takahashi.
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