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Japan banks tap power of plastic in profit search

August 23, 2005

Reuters:Japan's major banks, hunting for new profit sources after cleaning up a decade-long bad-loan mess, are taking their earnings quest to a new arena: the country's growing credit card market. Japanese banks are racing to become full-service financial firms in a shift highlighted by recent alliances between banks, card companies and other speciality consumer lenders.

Although Japanese banks have long issued credit cards, most have not marketed them aggressively, leaving much of the business to smaller players. Mizuho Financial Group wants to expand its Mizuho Mileage Club card, issued in conjunction with Credit Saison and others, from 500,000 users to 5 million by March 2008, by twinning it with ATM cards -- 1.4 million of which are issued by its retail bank each year.

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