The Financial Services Agency ordered two subsidiaries of the former state-owned postal services group to suspend new sales of insurance products on Friday, for three months, over improper sales that left thousands of people disadvantaged.

The FSA issued the penalties to the two units of Japan Post Holdings Co., which was privatized in 2007 and is owned 57 percent by the government, after concluding a three-month investigation in mid-December.

To take responsibility, Masatsugu Nagato, CEO of Japan Post Holdings, and Mitsuhiko Uehira and Kunio Yokoyama, presidents of the units Japan Post Insurance Co. and Japan Post Co., respectively, announced their resignations, effective Jan. 5, later in the day.