neobank
SBI Sumishin Net Bank (SSNB) has delivered a strong financial performance for the Fiscal Year 2024, concluded on March 31, 2025. The results are characterized by robust growth in both income and profitability, although slightly missing targets on ordinary profit (95% of forecast), mortgage loan origination (97%), and number of
mergers & acquisitions
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation have reached an agreement with State Bank of India (SBI), the state-owned bank of the Republic of India, and other financial institutions in India to acquire a 20.0% equity stake in YES BANK, a private commercial bank in India, subject
weekly
Welcome to the one hundred tenth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. The decades-long (if not forever) pricing system for Japanese sake has been broken. It has not happened overnight, rather it has been a slow, post-pandemic process as far as I could tell, but by now most of the
banking
After the market close on April 30, 2025, MUFG announced that it has revised its earnings target for profits attributable to owners of parent and its year-end dividend forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, both previously announced on November 14, 2024, to take into account recent business
weekly
Welcome to the one hundred ninth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. We are entering our own Japanese-style "triple witching" week. First, Golden Week has started, typically a good time to stay pat in Tokyo when everyone is traveling. However, travel has become expensive for Japanese residents, and
startup
Last week, SMBC Group made two announcements concerning their support for startup exits. 1. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and FOR STARTUPS have begun a collaboration aimed at diversifying exit strategies for startups 2. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, SMBC Venture Capital Management, and Bee Alternatives Japan have established a secondary fund
artificial intelligence
MUFG Bank has selected Databricks as its next-generation data and AI platform, aiming to consolidate AI model development platforms scattered across the company and to use the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform as a foundation for developing new AI applications. This announcement came merely a week after MUFG Bank announced its
regional bank
The Gunma Bank and Daishi Hokuetsu Financial Group have reached a memorandum of understanding aimed at realizing a business integration based on a basic policy of mutual trust and an equal integration. Such "integration" will take the form of repurposing Daishi Hokuetsu Financial Group's holding company
cybersecurity
In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in the amount of damage and number of reported cases of special fraud and SNS-based investment/romance scams. The banking industry needs to fundamentally strengthen countermeasures to protect customers' assets. Financial institutions have been monitoring deposit accounts and transaction histories,
digital
Mitsubishi UFJ Bank has taken a hybrid cloud approach enabled by Oracle technology to modernize the system infrastructure for its online banking service, Mitsubishi UFJ Direct. The bank selected Oracle Exadata Database Machine, the highest performing system for Oracle Database, to upgrade the Mitsubishi UFJ Direct platform. Following the implementation,
weekly
Welcome to the one hundred eighth edition of the Japan FinTech Observer. The digital banking landscape has become a little clearer. This week, Money Forward and MUFG ended their factoring joint venture, Biz Forward, with Money Forward making it a wholly owned subsidiary. A few days later, SMBC and Money
joint venture
The University of Tokyo and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group have signed a partnership agreement with the goal of establishing mechanisms to monetize the diverse assets of UTokyo, return this value to society, as well as to lead and pioneer initiatives for "Japan's Regrowth" through these efforts.