With various banks engage in a variety of operations, it seems to be natural that a wide range of efforts are being undertaken in managing these banks. Accordingly, when making these efforts, it is important for financial institutions to consider how laws and regulations are applied to them and to act with sufficient consideration for the convenience and interests of their customers, and I think that the operations of financial institutions should first of all be premised on properly protecting customers and complying with laws and regulations. Furthermore, there are differences among regional banks by regions, so it is natural that there are different measures taken by regional banks between some prefectures whose populations are declining and some are not, and I feel it is not appropriate to speak in generalizations. In any case, there are differences between regions, and there are differences between companies in the same region, so details such as population statistics must be taken into consideration. We should prevent a situation in which financial institutions would disappear in a given region as a result of excessive competition. I think there were concerns that if the promotion of competition among banks in a region were only pursued and banks finally went bankrupt as a result of that the merger of these banks has been prevented by the Act on Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade, the damage would be even greater. The Financial Services Agency’s stance is that steps must be taken to prevent the worst scenario, bearing in mind that there are a range of differences between regions. While taking into account the differences of each regional bank, we must develop favorable environment for regional banks to maintain their soundness to ensure that financial institutions do not disappear and do not cause inconvenience for the people living in their regions.
