payments
LY Corporation's revenue for the cumulative consolidated first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026 amounted to 489.6 billion yen (up 5.7% year on year), representing the highest cumulative consolidated first quarter revenue to date. This was due to an increased revenue in the
banking
Cathay United Bank has received approval from the Financial Supervisory Commission (the "FSC") to establish a branch in Tokyo and a sub-branch in Fukuoka City, enabling the Bank to provide Taiwanese companies with cross-border financial services and expand its presence in the Asian market. This marks the Bank&
banking
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) reported a Profit Attributable to Owners of Parent (Net Income) of ¥546.0 billion for the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026 (Q1 FY25). While this figure represents a modest 1.8% year-over-year (YoY) decline on a reported basis, a more
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred twenty-third edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. Earnings season is in full swing, and there were plenty of announcements last week, so we would just like to draw your attention to the Japan Fair Trade Commission's guidelines for smartphone apps - coming into
banking
Mizuho Financial Group has delivered a nuanced set of results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (ending June 30, 2025), characterized by a stark divergence between its core business segments and a surprisingly bullish revision to its full-year guidance. While Profit Attributable to Owners of Parent posted a
artificial intelligence
Salesforce Japan announced that The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ has selected the autonomous AI agent "Agentforce for Financial Services" specialized for the financial industry. This case represents Japan's first implementation of Agentforce for Financial Services. The Agentforce for Financial Services selected by Mitsubishi UFJ Bank this
banking
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) has commenced the fiscal year ending March 2026 with a robust first-quarter performance, characterized by strong underlying fundamentals in its core domestic operations. The group reported a Profit Attributable to Owners of Parent of ¥376.9 billion, a modest increase of 1.5% year-over-year (YoY)
core banking
CC Innovation, a group company of Hokkoku Financial Holdings, has decided to license the next-generation core banking system currently being developed for Hokukoku Bank from January 2028, as well as various subsystems developed and utilized in-house, to regional financial institutions outside the group. CC Innovation will also begin providing migration
asset management
SBI Sumishin Net Bank and FOLIO, a subsidiary of FOLIO Holding that provides innovative financial solutions within the SBI Group, have concluded a "Basic Business Partnership Agreement" for the purpose of jointly developing new asset management services for SBI Sumishin Net Bank customers. The launch of the new
banking
GMO Aozora Net Bank and the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Engineering Morikawa-Narisue Laboratory have officially launched joint research towards the construction of innovative credit risk assessment models utilizing AI and machine learning. In other news, TRABOX has launched a new service called "Finto Invoice Payment", which
mergers & acquisitions
Mizuho Bank has concluded a share transfer agreement with the shareholders of Upsider Holdings to acquire a majority of Upsider’s shares. Mizuho Bank will acquire approximately 70% of Upsider’s shares at a price of approximately ¥46 billion from their current holders, which include venture capital firms in and
Weekly
Welcome to the one hundred twenty-second edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. We have implemented our own, very personal "Don't buy American" policy, which might seem ironic, given that you are most likely to read this newsletter on LinkedIn, but we do offer a self-hosted version