Mizuho Bank is expected to take punitive measures against President Yasuhiro Sato and Chairman Takashi Tsukamoto for their mishandling of a scandal over loans extended to organized crime and other "anti-social" groups, sources revealed Saturday.
The lender is considering temporarily cutting Sato and Tsukamoto's salaries after the scandal led some clients to sever business ties.
Sato concurrently serves as president of Mizuho Financial Group Inc., the parent of Mizuho Bank, while Tsukamoto is also chairman of the group.
The bank was ordered by the Financial Services Agency on Sept. 27 to improve operations due to the illicit transactions but did not hold a news conference about the problem until Friday — a week later.
It also chose not to initially disclose that Orient Corp., a group credit company, was in charge of customer screening for the loans issued to underworld and "antisocial" groups, nor its decision to remove Masakane Koike on Monday as board member in charge of legal compliance.
Mizuho claimed it had planned to make these announcements Oct. 28, when it must submit a business improvement plan to the FSA.
Sato has meanwhile decided to cancel a business trip in mid-October to Washington, where the annual general meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will take place.