[Seoul Finance Hub, financial expert column] Sangjun Park, Professor, International Academy of Sciences at Waseda University

On January 17th, negative interest rates were imposed on some of the checking accounts in Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, one of Japan's four megabanks. Except in 2016, when the negative interest rate system was first introduced, it was the first time in six years that negative interest rates were imposed to a large bank. Just six months later, on August 17th, negative interest rates were imposed on some of the checking accounts in Mizuho Bank, also one of the four megabanks.

Meanwhile, in last June, a large financial group's investment in securities companies was a hot topic. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (FG), the parent company of Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, announced that it would take over Capital Nomura Securities (CNS), a Thai securities subsidiary of Nomura Holdings. Nomura Holdings is the parent company of Nomura Securities, Japan's largest securities company. Mitsubishi UFJ Group plans to invest up to 5.5 billion baht (about 21.2 billion yen) through Ayutthaya Bank. Mitsui Sumitomo, Japan's second-largest financial group after Mitsubishi UFJ Group, announced a 10-percent capital alliance for SBI, an internet securities company.

Nomura securities, which sold its Thai securities subsidiary to Mitsubishi UFJ Group, announced on July 8th that it had agreed to a comprehensive partnership in financial product brokerage business with Fukui Bank, a local bank. On August 12nd, TOKIO MARINE & NICHIDO FIRE INSURANCE announced that it would start selling insurance at Amazon Japan's internet shopping mall. The company plans to expand its products from earthquake insurance to accident insurance.

These news, which was the front page of Japanese economic magazines in 2022, condensedly show the difficult situation that Japanese financial institutions face and their survival strategies to survive in that situation.

Check the details : Korea Financial Times

https://fntimes.com/html/view.php?ud=202209050642477047c1c16452b0_18