Japan’s banking regulator would oversee system management at Mizuho Financial Group Inc, a rare punishment following a series of technical failures at the banking group, a source told Reuters yesterday.
The Japanese Financial Services Agency’s move is due to be part of administrative action against retail lender Mizuho Bank Ltd and its parent, Japan’s third-largest lender by assets, the source said on condition of anonymity.
A spokesperson for Mizuho declined to comment.
The action by the agency — one of the most decisive in recent memory — would bring the computer system of the retail arm of the Japanese banking giant under effective government control.
It comes after a series of high-profile technical meltdowns this year, including widespread outages at ATMs, that had frustrated customers and undermined confidence in the lender.
The technical problems are all the more notable given that Mizuho spent more than US$3.6 billion to overhaul its systems in 2019. That revamp followed two large-scale breakdowns in 2002 and 2011.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato declined to comment directly on reports of the action against Mizuho, but said banks themselves must be responsible for building systems to provide financial services.
A third-party report commissioned by the bank found its corporate culture was to blame for its long history of tech system failures, creating an atmosphere where managers are reluctant to express opinions and unable to respond well to crises.
The Nikkei Shimbun, which first reported the agency’s planned move, said the regulator would jointly manage the system with the bank, and order that system updates and maintenance be carried out under its control.
The management structure of the system might also be reviewed if necessary, the Nikkei said.
The regulator would determine where management responsibility lies after clarifying the cause of Mizuho’s recent technical problems, it said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last