Japan’s Mizuho Bank will punish more than 30 executives over revelations that the lender made loans to underworld figures, reports said yesterday, in the latest chapter of a headline-grabbing scandal.
The unit of Mizuho Financial Group, Japan’s third-biggest bank, has drafted punishments ranging from pay cuts to demotions to atone for the shady business dealings, the leading Nikkei Shimbun and Jiji Press news agency said.
Mizuho faces a deadline on Monday to submit to the Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) plans for improving its lending business, along with any further information uncovered by investigators appointed by the bank.
The bank declined to comment, saying “we have not made any decisions on this matter,” as Tokyo police reportedly probe its links with Yakuza crime syndicates.
The group’s Tokyo-listed shares were down 1.44 percent to ￥204 yesterday.
The lender has been under fire since it emerged that Mizuho had processed hundreds of transactions worth about ￥200 million (US$2 million) for what regulators described as “anti-social forces,” a common term for Japan’s mobsters.
The reports yesterday said Mizuho Bank chairman Takashi Tsukamoto would step down from his post, but stay on as head of the parent company, according to Jiji.
Mizuho Financial Group chief executive Yasuhiro Sato — who has acknowledged he knew about the loans — would work without pay for six months, the reports said.
Other managers would also see pay cuts while a compliance executive would be booted from the bank’s board, they added.
The FSA last month admonished Mizuho for taking “no substantial steps” in dealing with the issue after it was first discovered two years ago, and pointed to “serious problems” with its compliance monitoring.
The bank issued an apology earlier this month for “any concern or inconvenience’’ to customers and shareholders over the FSA’s order to improve its joint loan business with its consumer finance unit, Orient Corp.
The loans in question, mostly auto loans, were made through Orient, which has pledged to end them.
The bank initially said its top executives did not know about the payments, but Sato later admitted he and others had been apprised of the dubious dealings with members of Japan’s underworld.
The bank chief added that he would not be stepping down from his role at the helm of the huge financial group.
Sato’s admission came as it emerged Mizuho was turning down an award it had been given for its record on transparency.
Like the Italian mafia or Chinese triads, the yakuza engages in activities ranging from gambling, drugs, and prostitution to loan sharking, protection rackets, white-collar crime and business conducted through front companies.
The gangs, which themselves are not illegal, have historically been tolerated by the authorities.
Additional reporting by AP
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
The battle for artificial intelligence supremacy hinges on microchips, but the semiconductor sector that produces them has a dirty secret: It is a major source of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems. Global chip sales surged more than 19 percent to about US$628 billion last year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, which forecasts double-digit growth again this year. That is adding urgency to reducing the effects of “forever chemicals” — which are also used to make firefighting foam, nonstick pans, raincoats and other everyday items — as are regulators in the US and Europe who are beginning to
RSS