is a Japanese

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make a profit. It can also refer to a bank or a division of a larger bank that deals with whol ...

established in April 2001. It operates as a

direct bank A direct bank (sometimes called a branch-less bank or virtual bank) is a bank that offers its services only via the Internet, mobile app, email, and other electronic means, often including telephone, online chat, and mobile check deposit. A direct ...

and has no physical branches or ATMs. It is one of the largest online banks in Japan and a subsidiary of Sony Financial Holdings, the financial business unit of the multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. Its main business is offering

online banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, virtual banking, web banking or home banking, is a system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institut ...

with foreign currency deposits,

investment trust An investment trust is a form of investment fund found mostly in the United Kingdom and Japan. Investment trusts are constituted as Public limited company, public limited companies and are therefore closed ended since the fund managers cannot red ...

s, and home loans.

History

A reduction in regulations in Japan at the end of the 1990s encouraged a number of companies to enter the banking sector for the first time. Sony faced challenges as it began Sony Bank. In 2001, when Sony Bank was founded, Web use was limited in Japan as compared with the United States.Bach, Deborah. "Sony Counting on its Brand as a Magnet for its Web Bank." American Banker: 12. ProQuest Research Library. Jun 12 2001. Web. 27 May 2012. Only 24 million people used the Internet every month at that time. Still, the company remained hopeful that infrastructure would improve. Sony claimed its move into banking went hand-in-hand with its shift from a manufacturing focus to a focus on content such as

films A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of Visual arts, visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are gen ...

and

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

.Bach, Deborah. "Sony Seeks Japanese License for Web Bank; Morgan has Role." American Banker: 1. ProQuest Research Library. Feb 01 2001. Web. 27 May 2012. Sony announced its new banking unit in March 2000. The bank started doing business on June 11, 2001. The company began with ¥37.5 billion of capital. It had around 80 employees at the time. It added 340 online accounts during its first hour of operation. At the time, the company offered yen-deposit accounts,

s, card loans, and bank payments. It hoped to expand into foreign currency deposit accounts, credit cards, and housing loans by 2002. It also hoped to allow its customers to use automated teller machines from the

Japan Post was a Japanese statutory corporation that existed from 2003 to 2007, offering postal and package delivery services, Retail banking, banking services, and life insurance. It is the nation's largest employer, with over 400,000 employees, and ru ...

. In 2001, Sony Bank hoped to accumulate 400,000 customers by 2004. In February 2001, the company had hoped to accumulate $5.2 billion in deposits; it adjusted that figure downward to $4.1 billion in deposits three months later. In February 2001, the company aimed to gain $8.6 billion in deposits by 2006. Analysts at the time were generally upbeat about the prospects for the bank. Raymond H. Graber of TowerGroup suggested the bank could synergize with the other operations of Sony Financial. Still, Paul Jamieson of Gomez Advisors warned that customers would have high expectations for Sony Bank, given Sony's existing reputation for the ease of use and elegant design of its products. Shigeru Ishii was appointed and served as the first president of Sony Bank."ENTERPRISE: COMPANIES: Online and in the Money." Asiaweek Aug 10 2001: 1-. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 27 May 2012. the company faced weak earnings."J.P. Morgan Chase & Co." Wall Street Journal: 1. ABI/INFORM Global. Sep 15 2005. Web. 27 May 2012. By 2007, Sony Bank had accumulated 500,000 customers.Pilling, David. "Camera Sales Raise Sonys Game." Financial Times: 23. ABI/INFORM Global. Jul 27 2007. Web. 27 May 2012. That year, Sony planned to add an electronic trading platform. In 2011, Sony had considered expanding its banking business into the Australian market, only to abandon the idea in 2013. In 2019, Sony Bank started an English-language online banking service to meet the need of increasing foreign residents in Japan.

Ownership

Upon the bank's founding in 2001, Sony owned 80% of the bank. By 2005, its stake had risen to 84.2% and Sony Financial Holdings became the intermediate

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

of the bank. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group owned a 16% initial stake in the company and allowed Sony Bank customers to access its 7,600

automated teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, funds transfers, balance inquiries or account ...

s. Sony Group is considered to be a Mitsui keiretsu. Sumitomo Mitsui had reduced its share to 12.6% by 2005. Upon the bank's founding in 2001,

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational financial services, finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is List of largest banks in the United States, the largest ba ...

owned a 4% stake in the bank. JPMorgan had hoped to expand its

asset In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can b ...

and

wealth management Wealth management (WM) or wealth management advisory (WMA) is an investment advisory service that provides financial management and wealth advisory services to a wide array of clients ranging from affluent to high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-hi ...

services in Japan. The company reduced its ownership to 3.2% by 2005. It sold off its entire stake in 2005, claiming to have discussed the move with Sony in advance. By the divestiture made by JP Morgan, Sony increased its ownership to 87.4%. In 2008, Sony Bank became a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Financial Holdings after Sumitomo Mitsui sold its remaining stake to Sony.

References

External links

Sony Bank
in Japanese {{Authority control

Bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

Banks established in 2001 Banks of Japan Financial services companies based in Tokyo