At the Board of Directors Meeting held on April 22, Mizuho Bank President and CEO Seiji Sugiyama was elected JBA Chairman for fiscal 2008. Chairman Sugiyama expressed his resolve, outlined below, at the ensuing press conference.
The environment surrounding financial institutions is increasing in severity with the turmoil of the financial markets caused by the sub-prime loan issue, the slow-down of the U.S. economy and the Japanese economy entering delicate times. I want this year to be “a year of steady progress.” I will endeavor to realize the implementation, materialization and sophistication of the various measures now in the making from an independent-minded position. I will also do my best to align practices to further meet global standards. In tackling various issues, I will place importance on three perspectives: Whether we are fully conscious of users’ eyes, whether we are tackling issues on our own, and whether it is essential to strengthen international competitiveness.
1. Enhancing Convenience and Diversity of Financial Services
In making every effort to provide financial services that fully meet user demands for internationally competitive convenience and diversity, we will actively express our opinion on the necessary deregulations for achieving this.
For instance, deregulations concerning firewalls and the business scope of banking groups need to be effective enough that users feel the improved convenience. It goes without saying that banks need to build corporate compliance systems to prevent harmful conflicts of interest and the abuse of dominant positions by players.
As for the implementation of electronically recorded monetary claims, JBA will represent the banking industry in building a necessary infrastructure that is highly convenient and reliable.
We will also submit tax reform requests that benefit users such as the integration of financial income taxation and the taxation of defined-contribution pension plans.
2. Ensuring Reliability and Safety of Financial Markets
JBA has expanded the measure to compensate victims for damages incurred from counterfeit or stolen cards to include stolen passbooks and Internet banking. We will do our best on these two fronts to “call for customers’ precaution” and “provide a safety net for damages incurred” so that customers can safely use financial services.
As to the presently rampant remittance solicitation fraud, we will proactively publicize measures for compensating damages and follow up with steps to ensure smooth compensation. We will also proactively work out measures to prevent damages.
We will also address the issues of disclosure and corporate compliance, which have developed into core issues with the sub-prime loan issue. Furthermore, we will follow up carefully with developments regarding the Japan Post Bank and policy finance reforms including crisis-handling operations, aiming to ensure safe and reliable financial markets.
3. CSR Activities of Banks as a Public Entity
We will strengthen our environmental efforts, the central theme of the Lake Toya Summit. Besides measures taken by JBA, individual banks will each play a role on their own through the issuance of “environmental loans.” We will further promote comprehensive “barrier-free” banking transactions to cope with the advancing aging society and also enhance measures for financial education including the program for dispatching lecturers.
I firmly believe that every JBA activity should be handled steadily, sincerely and honestly for the benefit of users, customers and business partners. I want to tackle these issues and tasks by dedicating all the forces of JBA to their resolution.