Press Conference by Taro Aso, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Minister for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

(Friday, November 1, 2013, 8:40 am to 8:48 am)

[Questions and answers]

Q.

With regard to Mizuho Bank, given that a business improvement plan and a follow-up report were submitted on October 28 and onsite inspections are to be carried out beginning on November 5, I would like to ask your views on whether subsequent administrative action will be required and how much time will be needed to assess this matter.

A.

We are in the middle of preparations for the onsite inspections of Mizuho Bank, so no decisions have yet been made on the scope and length of these inspections.  These should not be determined in advance, but instead depend on the findings.

Q.

Even as Mizuho Bank’s loans to criminal syndicates have become an issue, Shinsei Trust & Banking’s president announced yesterday at a financial results press conference that it, too, had provided financing to a criminal syndicate in the form of car loans made through a consumer credit company to the criminal syndicate, and it seems likely that numerous such examples will emerge.  How do you regard this case coming to light?

A.

Basically I see the voluntary disclosure of the information as an understandable action.  In any case, now that the bank is at the stage of having clearly determined that anti-social forces were the recipients of loans, I think it is making a variety of efforts to eliminate this problem, as well as that of subrogation, and this is a very understandable direction.

(End)