Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group is reportedly set to name a new chief executive, succeeding Tatsufumi Sakai who will exit after multiple technical failures in 2021.
Mizuho will appoint Masahiro Kihara as CEO, according to a «Nikkei» report citing unnamed sources.
The appointment will be decided during the upcoming board meeting on January 17 while Kihara will take office on April 1 when Tatsufumi Sakai makes his planned exit from the bank.
Kihara is currently Mizuho's head of global products unit, which handles investment banking businesses such as syndicated loans, bond issues and mergers advisory. The 56-year old is a Mizuho veteran and first joined the Japanese lender in 1989.
2021 Glitches
In November last year, Sakai said he would step down after Japan’s regulator called out the lender for insufficient attention to computer system risks and demanded improvements.
The regulator’s actions followed eight incidents of technical failures in the year.
In February, ATMs swallowed more than 5,000 cash cards and passbooks by ATMs and one month later, another technical failure caused delays in 300 foreign currency transfers.
