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

(Excerpt)

(Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 9:45 am to 9:53am)

[Questions and answers]

Q.

Regarding realignment among regional banks, on the 10th it was announced that the Higo Bank and the Kagoshima Bank have reached a basic agreement on a merger. This follows a similar announcement by the Bank of Yokohama and Higashi-Nippon Bank. Merger moves among regional banks are starting to attract attention, so please give us your thoughts.

A.

I think that decisions on mergers by financial institutions are made as business decisions by the financial institutions themselves, and as I have said before, the prevailing view is that if the population is going to decline, various financial institutions, including regional banks, should be thinking about what they should do to properly exercise their functions as financial intermediaries. This goes for all of them, not just Higo Bank. So specifically, mergers themselves are only means, not ends, so I think that in their business strategies, they make various decisions that are suited to the regions in which they operate. So maybe I feel that it must be ensured that the means are not confused with the ends.

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