Mitsubishi UFJ to make ¥300 bil. growth investment

Jiji Press

15:39 JST, December 26, 2021

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. plans to make new investments of ¥200 billion to ¥300 billion in growth fields, its president, Hironori Kamezawa, has said in a recent interview.

The Japanese megabank group will specifically seek to invest in financial services in Asia, asset management in and outside Japan, and business acquisitions to strengthen its information technology operations.

The planned move comes after Mitsubishi UFJ agreed in September to sell MUFG Union Bank, a U.S. affiliate, to U.S. Bancorp, a regional banking giant.

Kamezawa said that Mitsubishi UFJ is set to gain ¥800 billion to ¥900 billion from the sale, of which a third will be used for growth investment, another third for investing in U.S. Bancorp and the remaining third for share buybacks and other measures to boost shareholder returns.

He also said that Mitsubishi UFJ is in talks with U.S. Bancorp for a possible partnership in matching Japanese and U.S. businesses, and exchanging personnel with digital skills.

The megabank group will accelerate the development of an in-house digital financial service platform and cooperation with outside parties “to strengthen ties with small and midsize companies, and individual clients,” he said.

Kamezawa said that Mitsubishi UFJ will lower fees paid by stores for a digital payment service provided jointly with Recruit Holdings Co., suggesting that the megabank group will seek to differentiate itself from competitors in the field of smartphone payment by offering cheap settlement functions for retailers’ smartphone apps.

Regarding a financial platform for small and midsize companies, Kamezawa said that Mitsubishi UFJ will put its efforts into supporting clients’ decarbonization and digitalization measures, such as a service to calculate the amounts of their greenhouse gas emissions.