INTERVIEW: Daiwa Securities Group Plans 5 Pct Pay Hike

Tokyo, Dec. 23 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s Daiwa Securities Group Inc. plans a pay hike of about 5 pct for its employees for the business year from next April, President Akihiko Ogino said in a recent interview. The company also plans to raise the starting monthly salary for workers fresh out of university by 10,000 yen to 310,000 yen, he added. “Prices are rising,” Ogino said, explaining why the brokerage group will continue to raise the pay after a total hike of about 20 pct over the preceding four years. He also said the company plans to grant shares of its stock to employees as part of its pay hike for the next year as the company’s stock price rose about 30 pct this year and its dividends hit a record high. “We want employees to benefit (from the brisk performance) so we can move in the same direction,” Ogino said. For Daiwa Securities Group, generative artificial intelligence is “not a tool to improve the efficiency of operations but a technology that produces new values,” he said. A majority of the company’s branches are already using an AI system that analyzes big data, including on clients and characteristics of regions the company serves, and suggests what to improve about sales activities, he also said. Ogino said the company plans to have all branches adopt it at an early date. In October, Daiwa Securities Group formed a partnership with Sakana AI Co., a Tokyo-based startup founded by people including researchers who had worked for U.S. digital giant Google LLC. It is also developing a system in which AI that has studied the brokerage group’s asset management know-how will propose investment plans to customers. Ogino said the company aims to start a service using the system in 2028. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]