From Shinsei Bank to SBI Shinsei Bank

We would like to express our sincere gratitude for your continued patronage.

The SBI Shinsei Bank Group became a member of the SBI Group in December 2021, and fiscal 2022 was essentially the first year since joining the SBI Group.

 

Established in 1999 as a pioneer in Internet financial services in Japan, the SBI Group has built a globally unprecedented business ecosystem that offers financial services, including securities, banking and insurance as its core business. 

Furthermore, the SBI Group is currently working to evolve this business ecosystem into a “digital space ecosystem” amid projected digitization not only in the financial sector but also in various other fields which serves society. The SBI Group has approximately 19,000 employees on a consolidated basis and a customer base of 46 million (including the SBI Shinsei Bank Group as of the end of March 2023). The SBI Shinsei Bank Group plays an important role as a core company in the banking business in the Financial Services segment.


During the past year, we have endeavored to expand our customer base and improve profitability under our basic philosophy of “Customercentric Principle.” The Customer-centric Principle is positioned as the source of the SBI Group’s corporate value creation and is consistent with all of the Group’s businesses. Examples include the enhancement and buildup of competitiveness in products and services in the individual business and the Triangle Strategy to realize regional revitalization. As a result of these initiatives, I feel that the expectations of customers and the market have changed significantly.

 

On January 4, 2023, the Bank changed its corporate name from Shinsei Bank to SBI Shinsei Bank. The new corporate name made it clear that we are a member of the SBI Group in terms of both name and reality, while valuing the Bank Group’s culture and history. On the first day as SBI Shinsei Bank, a ceremony was held at the head office in Nihonbashi-Muromachi to commemorate the new beginning, with the participation of Mr. Yoshitaka Kitao, representative of the SBI Group, and the Bank made a new start under the new name.

Achievements in the First Year of the Medium-Term Management Plan

In order to achieve the medium-term management plan, the “SBI Shinsei Bank Group Medium-Term Vision” was established in fiscal 2022, the Bank Group has been proactively pursuing sales activities and expanding points of contact with customers. As a result, total revenue for fiscal 2022 was 240.2 billion yen, the highest level in 10 years, and net income was 42.7 billion yen, a significant increase from 20.3 billion yen in the previous fiscal year. In addition, operating assets (including marketable securities) and deposits totaled 10.3 trillion yen (up 2.2 trillion yen year on year) and 9.9 trillion yen (up 3.5 trillion yen year on year), respectively, achieving the targets in the Medium-Term Vision ahead of schedule.

 

To pursue the initiatives for achieving the Medium-Term Vision, we are focusing on collaboration with the SBI Group in particular. In the individual business, we focused on enhancing products and services and competitiveness, including collaboration with SBI SECURITIES. We have opened SBI SHINSEIBANK MONEYPLAZA, a joint branch with SBI MONEYPLAZA, a subsidiary of SBI SECURITIES, in three locations, Ikebukuro, Ginza and Umeda. Our ability to provide a wide range of products and leverage the collective strengths of the SBI Group has earned us a strong reputation among customers. In addition, the number of accounts for individual customers turned to a net increase for the first time in four years. This was a result of our efforts to enhance customers’ convenience and benefits such as a substantial increase in deposit interest rates, the lowest level of housing loan rate in the industry, the full elimination of convenience store ATM fees, simultaneous account openings with SBI SECURITIES. In fiscal 2022, the number of accounts increased by approximately 110,000. In April 2023, we launched a new service, SBI Shinsei Connect, which automates deposits and withdrawals between accounts. We are working to further strengthen our products and services.

In the institutional business, the Bank Group significantly expanded its customer base through introductions of customers and projects. In addition, the Bank Group promoted collaboration to realize regional revitalization based on the Triangle Strategy, which utilizes the functions of regional financial institutions, the SBI Group, and the SBI Shinsei Bank Group in a trinity. Partnerships with regional banks have increased, particularly in co-financing, and our presence as a platformer of regional financial institutions has expanded, as well. In the area of marketable securities, which is the Bank Group’s new area of focus, we are leveraging the knowledge of the SBI Group helping us diversify and expand the scale of assets under management.

 

As a result of these activities, we believe that collaboration with the SBI Group generated approximately 5 billion yen in revenue in fiscal 2022 and that we are on track to achieve the 15 billion yen target in fiscal 2024 envisioned in the Medium-Term Vision. The cost of generating synergies was approximately 4 billion yen, but this mainly reflected one-time initiatives, including the cost of changing the corporate name. We are also making progress in establishing an organizational structure for sustainable growth, including changing corporate names, reorganizing group companies, strategically allocating human resources and withdrawing from unprofitable businesses and investments.

 

Promotion of Sustainability Management

We consider sustainability management to be one of the most important elements in the management of the Bank Group. In the Medium-Term Vision, one of the three basic strategies is to “achieve sustainability through business activities.” The Bank Group, as a financial institution, supports its customers not only from the financial aspect but also from the viewpoint of risks and opportunities related to sustainability. The Bank Group’s philosophy is to create a positive impact by actively supporting customers who are working to resolve environmental and social issues, which will lead to the realization of a sustainable environment and society and a virtuous cycle for the sustainable growth for the Bank Group.

 

In institutional business, we are strengthening our efforts for sustainable finance. We have added Positive Impact Finance, Transition Finance and ZEH development fund to our menu. In the individual business, we have begun handling Sustainability Deposits, in which deposits received from retail customers are used to finance projects that address environmental and social issues.

 

Initiatives for climate change are one of our priority issues. We are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by integrating our offices and switching to power derived from renewable energy sources. We are also working to ascertain the emissions of our loan and investment targets. The status of compliance is disclosed in accordance with the TCFD framework.

 

The Bank Group believes that the ability of all employees to demonstrate their abilities and work with satisfaction leads to the provision of optimal value to customers, and that it is essential for the organization to grow and transform itself. In addition, we believe that we can continue to create new values as an organization by having human resources with diverse characteristics and values recognize and accept each other and leverage their respective strengths to generate synergies. To this end, we are pursuing a variety of initiatives to improve human capital, such as proactively working to create systems and a corporate culture that enables us to attract and retain diverse human resources who can realize sustainable value creation.

Achieving the Medium-Term Vision and Further Growth

We are entering an age of turmoil, with unprecedented uncertainty, including changes in domestic and foreign monetary policy, the persistently high level of inflation, and heightened geopolitical risks. Under these circumstances, the SBI Group is actively promoting the use of technologies, including AI and blockchain, as part of its efforts to “going beyond finance with finance as its core,” and working to diversify in three areas (customers, financial products and services and business fields), aiming to evolve into a digital space ecosystem.

 

Based on this overall strategy, the Bank Group, as a member of the SBI Group, will promote the creation of further synergies within the SBI Group. In addition to making maximum use of the effects of the change in corporate name, in the individual business, we aim to promote collaboration with SBI SECURITIES and other entities, while in the institutional business, we endeavor to expand transactions with regional financial institutions for regional revitalization. In addition, by expanding our customer base and financial base, we will strive to achieve qualitative improvements and quantitative expansion.

 

Between May 15 and June 23, 2023, the Bank’s parent company, SBI Regional Bank Holdings Co., Ltd., made a tender offer for the Bank’s shares, which resulted in SBI Regional Bank Holdings owning 53.74% of the voting rights of the Bank. In the future, due to the share consolidation, the Bank’s shareholders will be limited to SBI Regional Bank Holdings, the Resolution and Collection Corporation and the Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Bank’s shares will be delisted. After delisting, we will be able to make more agile and flexible decisions than before, further integrate with the SBI Group, and establish and execute medium- to long-term management strategies. In addition, we believe that synergies and benefits can be realized by further strengthening businesses through mutually complementing functions with the SBI Group and its customer base, promptly allocating optimal management resources throughout the SBI Group, and reducing listing maintenance costs. Through the realization of synergies and benefits, we will strive to improve the Bank Group’s corporate value through consolidation of profitability and enhance equity capital.

As a member of the SBI Group, the SBI Shinsei Bank Group will continue to thoroughly implement a “Customer-centric Principle” with the aim of achieving the Medium-Term Vision and achieving sustainable growth.

July 2023
Katsuya Kawashima
President and Chief Executive Officer