Tag - banks

 
 

BANKS

A Bank of Kyoto branch in the city of Kyoto. Kyoto Financial Group has been a symbol of Japan’s old guard holding out against selling the stakes, given its historic ties to exporters based in the city including Nintendo, Nidec and Kyocera.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 16, 2025
Kyoto bank shifts stance on mergers and cuts to cross-shareholdings
Kyoto Financial has been a symbol of Japan’s old guard holding out against selling the stakes, given its historic ties to exporters based in the city.
Taro Kitabayashi, chief executive officer of Norinchukin Bank, during an interview in Tokyo, on April 9. Kitabayashi said the bank finished selling off its unprofitable U.S. Treasury holdings by the end of March, thus avoiding the volatility last week as Trump’s trade policies whipsawed markets.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 15, 2025
Norinchukin dodges Trump’s market chaos after selling Treasuries
New Chief Executive Taro Kitabayashi said the bank finished selling off its unprofitable U.S. Treasury holdings by the end of March.
Foreign residents who fail to renew their residential statuses before their expiry may find that they won’t be able to withdraw cash from their bank accounts.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 9, 2025
Banks freeze withdrawals for foreign nationals upon expiration of visas
The move is part of a government initiative to combat scams and fraud, the Financial Services Agency says.
Social engineering scams thrive on poorly monitored social media platforms, and while the UK is pushing tougher laws to hold tech companies accountable, the U.S. resists stricter rules, believing individuals should bear responsibility for avoiding fraud.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2025
The U.K. is trying to fight social scams. The U.S. not so much.
Social engineering is one of the hardest parts of the trillion-dollar online scam industry to block or disrupt.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking plans to start structuring products such as asset-backed securities, hoping to capitalize on the growing market and strong prospects for infrastructure investments in Brazil.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 8, 2025
Japan’s SMBC to expand in Brazil’s local bond capital markets
The Japanese bank plans to start structuring products such as asset-backed securities, hoping to capitalize on the growing market for infrastructure investments in Brazil.
Wall Street banks, under political pressure and tempted by short-term gains, are abandoning climate commitments and pouring billions into fossil fuels, risking both environmental catastrophe and massive future economic losses.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2025
Wall Street will regret helping the world burn
For an industry in the business of money, it sure has a funny way of ensuring its destruction. 
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking is in talks to provide corporate client data to Fujitsu to run through the IT company’s multimodal machine learning tools to make business forecasts.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 3, 2025
SMBC and Fujitsu to partner on AI-driven forecasting services
The move would be a rare instance of a Japanese bank allowing another company access to sensitive customer data.
Three Japanese banks are teaming up to combat the enduring challenge of a dwindling population.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2025
Three Japanese banks form alliance to fight population slump
Shizuoka Bank, Hachijuni Bank and Yamanashi Chuo Bank will work together to draw outside talent and funding into central Japan.
Among the proposals by the Financial Services Agency include removing cash and other items that have a high risk of being used for money laundering from a list of items that can be kept in safe deposit boxes.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 28, 2025
Japanese regulators seek stricter rules on safe deposit boxes
The Financial Services Agency is proposing, among others, barring the storage of cash and other items with high risk of being used for money laundering.
Masuo Fukuda, head of Citigroup’s investment banking business in Tokyo, says the hiring in Tokyo started in December targeting various levels of bankers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 27, 2025
Citigroup hiring dealmakers in Japan with fee pool seen reviving
The Wall Street firm is expanding its investment banking team in Japan as it bets the country’s deal fee pool will finally rebound.
Currently, banks voluntarily set the upper limit on cash withdrawals from ATMs at ¥500,000 per day, with no legal regulations.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2025
Japan eyes ¥300,000 limit on daily ATM use for elderly
Currently, banks voluntarily set the upper limit on cash withdrawals from ATMs at ¥500,000 per day, with no legal regulations.
Katsunori Tanaka, an ex-Goldman Sachs analyst who now heads hedge fund Ariake Capital, is betting big on Japan's smaller regional banks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 25, 2025
Ex-Goldman analyst’s hedge fund reaps 300% returns on small Japan banks
Katsunori Tanaka spent years at Goldman Sachs scrutinizing Japan’s biggest banks. Now at Ariake Capital, he obsesses over much smaller regional lenders.
A worker arranges cases of avocados at a packaging facility in Mexico on Tuesday. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will follow through next month on twice-delayed plans to impose 25% levies on goods from Mexico as well as Canada.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 21, 2025
Trump trade upheaval leaves foreign central banks guessing
The stagflationary direction noted of the U.S. outlook has central banks across the globe parsing what the fallout may mean for them.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has walked away from the banking industry’s largest climate alliance.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 20, 2025
MUFG leaves climate group as Japanese banks join Wall Street exits
MUFG follows Tokyo-based rivals Nomura Holdings and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group in leaving the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
The Japanese postal mark displayed on a Japan Post post box in Tokyo
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2025
Number of Japan Post clients affected by misuse of information rises to 10 million
"We deeply apologize for causing anxiety and worry," Japan Post Holdings Managing Executive Officer Miho Ichiki told a news conference.
One year on from the Bank of Japan's historic rate hike, the biggest winners are the banks.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 17, 2025
Banks boom and shoppers scrimp a year after Japan’s rate pivot
Higher borrowing costs are also fueling a political battle over how the government can rein in its outlays.
Nomura Holdings is withdrawing from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 13, 2025
Nomura exits bank climate group, joining Wall Street exodus
Nomura said it will stick to its target set four years ago, to deploy $125 billion of sustainable financing through March 2026.
Nomura Holdings and Japan's other big brokers are having second thoughts about selling so-called structured loans to regional lenders.
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 11, 2025
Japan brokers rethink repackaged JGBs after regulator warning
There are concerns that buyers might lack proper risk management for the product and could suffer mounting losses if market interest rates move against them.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 7, 2025
Bank of America CEO willing to hire in Japan amid revival
The bank, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, has about 800 employees in Japan.
Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested a former deputy manager at Hana Credit Union’s Yokohama branch on suspicion of stealing ¥619 million in cash from the branch's safe deposit boxes.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 5, 2025
Hana Credit Union employee arrested on suspicion of safe deposit box theft
The suspect admitted to the allegations, telling police he used the stolen money to pay off debts and gamble.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.