Major Japanese Banks Opening New Types of Outlets

Tokyo, Sept. 19 (Jiji Press)–Major Japanese banks are opening new types of outlets, such as those specializing in providing individual clients with investment consultations and assistance on setting up accounts, in a reversal of their previous moves to scale down branch networks. They now hope to increase direct contact with customers again amid rising interest rates and the growing appetite for asset management services. The use of digital technology in services is also being sought. On Sept. 12, MUFG Bank opened a retail-only branch at the NEWoMan Takanawa shopping complex in Tokyo’s Minato Ward, its first new outlet in some 20 years. The store has no counter handling cash-related services while featuring a simple layout with a large event space, a tablet terminal for account openings, a consultation booth and an automated teller machine. It is open for more hours than ordinary outlets, including on weekday evenings and weekends. Events are held to attract customers and make people feel easy to visit the outlet while shopping and commuting. MUFG Bank aims to turn about 80 to 100 of its roughly 320 branches nationwide into the new type of branch, positioning the Minato Ward outlet as a model to promote its new retail financial brand integrating banking, securities, trust and credit card services. “Banks must provide new values that meet customer needs while transforming themselves in line with changes in society and people’s lives,” MUFG Bank President and CEO Junichi Hanzawa said. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. has been developing small outlets focusing on services including investment consultations at commercial facilities since 2023, and plans to convert around 250 of its approximately 400 branches into this type through renovations or relocations. They are designed to promote the bank’s “Olive” brand general digital financial services. Mizuho Bank began rolling out new small retail branches in March, while Resona Bank is aiming to open around 10 outlets specializing in customer consultations and events during the current fiscal year ending in March 2026. Since the second half of the 1990s, marked by ultralow interest rates, Japanese banks had scaled down their branch networks, partly in order to reduce costs. Some banks born out of mergers did so to eliminate overlapping branches. However, banks now see the increasing need to lure individual customers who are attracted by rising interest rates. Major banks opted to launch new brick-and-mortar outlets as they aim to take advantage of their strengths in in-person services, in order to better compete against increasingly prevalent online banks. “The role of bank branches will shift from administrative work to consultations and marketing,” Nihon University professor Toshihiro Sugiyama said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]