Ad Hoc Press Conference by SUZUKI Shunichi, Minister of State for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

(Thursday, January 25, 2024, 5:46 pm to 5:49 pm)

[Opening remarks:]

Minister)

Today, a business improvement order was issued to Sompo Japan and Sompo Holdings as an administrative action under the Insurance Business Act for the incident of the fraudulent insurance claim made by BIGMOTOR. This order requires both companies to clarify their managerial responsibilities, drastically strengthen the business administration system, submit a business improvement plan, and report subsequent progress, etc. It is very regrettable that Sompo Holdings as a parent company has not adequately managed the business of Sompo Japan as its subsidiary company, and serious problems have been found in a series of actions taken by Sompo Japan to process the fraudulent insurance claim. We will demand that both companies take this incident seriously and make drastic improvements so that this never occurs again. In the future, the FSA will properly check the progress in business improvements at both companies.

[Questions and answers:]

Q.

Could you let me hear about how you feel as the Minister towards this administrative action against Sompo Japan and Sompo Holdings and what point you will pay close attention to? 

A.

First, about my feeling, I recognize that a series of problems around BIGMOTOR triggering this administrative action is an extremely serious incident with far-reaching impact and could lead to the loss of trust in the non-life insurance industry as a whole. It is highly regrettable that we have come to this situation, and we will strongly demand that both companies take the business improvement order  seriously and take drastic measures for improvement so that a similar incident will not occur again. As action taken in the future, we will confirm whether they, upon receipt of this order, clarify their managerial responsibilities, improve systems, including the business administration system, and formulate a business improvement plan that thoroughly addresses these issues, and fully check the progress of the business improvement plan. With respect to the advancement of necessary improvements that also address how corporate culture and management should be, we will carefully follow up the issue in the future.