Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank President Katsuyuki Sugita said July 30 his bank solemnly accepts the administrative punishment meted out for its payoffs and dubious loans to a "sokaiya" racketeer.
Repeating apologies to the bank's shareholders, clients and depositors, he pledged to eliminate all dubious transactions, reinforce internal controls, and clarify responsibilities and authority within the bank. "We will overhaul our organization and make utmost efforts to establish a transparent management system to prevent the recurrence of those scandals so that we can regain public confidence as soon as possible," he told a news conference.
Asked how seriously the bank's business will suffer from a series of punitive actions announced July 30, Sugita said that although Dai-Ichi Kangyo has yet to analyze the impact, "I believe it is a heavy penalty for a commercial bank to be prohibited from providing loans to new customers."