Japan's Mizuho to decline to chair lobby group after glitches

TOKYO: Mizuho Financial Group Inc will decline to chair a lobbying group that represents Japanese banks, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said, after Japan's third largest lender by assets suffered system failures.

Mizuho experienced four systems glitches during two weeks from February to March.

Tatsufumi Sakai, chief executive of the financial group, was supposed this month to take up the post of chair of a lobbying group that represents around 190 banks, but said last month he would consider postponing his acceptance.

Instead, Japan's No.2 lender Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc will take over from the current chair Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc from July, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The lobby group will make a final decision on Thursday at its board meeting, the source said.

Mizuho reported a system breakdown on Feb. 28, affecting 4,318 automated teller machines (ATMs) out of 5,395 nationwide, leaving thousands of bank cards and passbooks stuck inside the devices. The bank also suffered two minor system glitches at ATMs on March 3 and 7.

The issue on March 11 was a hardware problem at its data centre, which delayed 263 foreign currency-denominated remittances for corporate clients, worth 50 billion yen.