Toyota Motor Corp. will establish a holding company in June under which affiliated financial companies will offer a wide range of financial services, company officials said Tuesday.
Toyota will be the first nonfinancial concern to have a financial holding company in Japan.
The planned company will hold under its wing Toyota Finance Corp., automobile-related financial service units in 14 foreign companies and auto loan and insurance, housing loan, credit card settlement and other operations, the officials said.
Chiyoda Fire & Marine Insurance Co., a member of the Toyota group that will merge with Dai-Tokyo Fire & Marine Insurance Co. in 2001, is also expected to come under the holding company's wing.
A wholly owned securities subsidiary Toyota plans to set up later this year is likely to independently start operations and will eventually join the holding company, they said.
Details of the holding company scheme will be worked out in May.
With U.S. carmakers General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. having strong financial units, Toyota has been striving to strengthen its presence in the financial services area. For example, Japan's biggest automaker began providing housing loans through Toyota Finance earlier this year and plans to issue proprietary credit cards from next year.