Japan’s Mizuho to set up third-party committee over system failures

FILE PHOTO: Mizuho Bank’s signboard is pictured in Tokyo, Japan, January 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

By Takashi Umekawa

TOKYO (Reuters) - Mizuho Financial Group Inc, Japan’s third largest lender by assets, said on Wednesday it would set up a third-party committee to investigate a series of system failures, which it said had hurt its credibility.

Since late February, Mizuho has suffered three ATM-related glitches as well as delays to foreign currency-dominated remittances, mainly affecting corporate customers.

At an urgently arranged news conference, Chief Executive Tatsufumi Sakai apologised for the incidents and said he recognised the incidents had “eroded trust in us”.

The committee would be chaired by lawyer Shuji Iwamura and more than two members would join later, Mizuho said.

The lender also said it had cancelled a management reshuffle that would have seen Mizuho Bank CEO Koji Fujiwara replaced by Managing Director Masahiko Kato from April.

(Reporting by Takashi Umekawa; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Edmund Blair)