Japan Post Holdings Co. said Wednesday it will resume sales of insurance products after a fraud scandal led regulators to issue a business improvement order to the financial behemoth.
The former state-owned postal group suspended sales of financial products, including investment trusts offered by its insurance unit, at post offices nation wide after the scandal broke last year.
"We will resume our business by apologizing (to customers)," Japan Post President Hiroya Masuda said at a news conference. Masuda, who assumed the post in January with a pledge to win back public trust, did not give a specific date for the restart.
Japan Post said an additional 642 workers, including salespeople, are now subject to disciplinary measures.
In late 2019, the Financial Services Agency ordered two units — Japan Post Insurance Co. and Japan Post Co. — to suspend sales of insurance products for three months from Jan. 1. Although the ban has since been lifted, the units continue to keep the restrictions in place.
A probe by the FSA has found cases in which salespeople gave inaccurate explanations about Japan Post products when encouraging customers to switch insurance contracts.
The scandal sent shockwaves throughout the country because the financial and mail delivery services offered by Japan Post's more than 20,000 post offices across the country were generally trusted by many Japanese, especially in rural areas.