Mizuho Financial Group Inc. plans to tie up with major U.S. banks Wachovia Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. to develop investment trusts and other financial products for retail banking, sources close to the deal said Wednesday.
Mizuho will include the tieup in a medium-term plan it will announce next week.
North Carolina-based Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank in assets, and California-based Wells Fargo, the fifth-largest, have sophisticated knowledge in investment services for wealthy people and in the development of financial products. They also have securities and trust banking units to provide integrated financial services.
Mizuho believes the tieup will help it develop a business model to enable it to become a financial conglomerate.
The medium-term plan will also call for the Mizuho Financial Group to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and for it to pay back public funds injected by the state by March 2007.
The public funds were used to bolster the group's capital base as it struggled under the weight of massive bad loans. Some 1.5 trillion yen still remains at the group.