Japanese banking giant Mizuho and trading company Marubeni have agreed to explore opportunities by providing new financial services in the ASEAN region via financial technology.
Mizuho Financial Group (Mizuho FG) President & Group CEO Yasuhiro Sato, Mizuho Bank President & CEO Nobuhide Hayashi and Marubeni Corporation President & Chief Executive Fumiya Kokubo, have agreed to start exploring opportunities to provide a suite of new financial services using fintech in the ASEAN region.
The firms believe that the settlement and e-commerce market is expected to greatly expand in the near future in the sprawling ASEAN region.
Dedicated Project Team
In specific terms, the new partners are considering providing services by utilising e-money and aim to offer financing services based on the transaction data accumulated through the settlements, and digital marketing services.
Mizuho FG, Mizuho Bank, and Marubeni will first form an integrated project team for Japan and ASEAN.
The team will then will strive for early realisation of the above initiatives by fully utilizing Mizuho Group’s expertise in the financial field, progressive initiatives in the fintech business area, and network with startup companies, and Marubeni’s network in the ASEAN region with local partners.
Blockchain First
Last year IBM signed a contract with another Japanese lender, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, to examine the design, management and execution of contracts among business partners using blockchain technologies.
The move was the first project built on the Hyperledger Project fabric, an open-source blockchain platform, to use blockchain for real-life contract management on the IBM Cloud.
