Press Conference by the Minister for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

March 19 , 2004

Q.

Customer information has leaked from Citibank. Lately, the leakage of personal information is becoming a massive problem in various businesses, and now, it has finally occurred in the financial sector. Could you tell us what kind of action will be taken as a supervisory authority?

A.

The personal information issue is extremely crucial and serious in any industry. In that sense, it is deeply regrettable that it has happened to a financial institution that relies on trust.

In any case, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) will exhaustively raise the awareness of all financial institutions and take proper action to prevent it from happening again.

Q.

Has a report from Citibank provided already?

A.

We are currently demanding one.

Q.

Citibank's response seems to be slow, considering that the incident took place last month.

A.

We are doing fact-finding by requesting a report containing causes and details of the matter and responses to it. The FSA is taking proper action and is demanding a report from Citibank, bearing in mind that there are some questions, as a matter of course, about the speed of the bank's response to a significant problem such as the leakage of customer information.