UFJ Bank accidentally failed to pay interest on 2,000 canceled time deposits due to decimal point errors, bank officials said Friday.
The total amount of the unpaid interest is believed to be between 10,000 yen and 20,000 yen.
The bank apologized to the depositors and will issue payments retroactive to the date of cancellation by the end of the month, they said.
The problem affected two types of time deposits accepted by the former Tokai Bank between Oct. 2 and Jan. 14 and canceled between April 1 and April 9.
UFJ was created in the wake of the Jan. 15 merger of Tokai Bank and Sanwa Bank.
The officials said the problem arose because of a Tokai Bank rule by which it calculated interest rates to two decimal places.
When customers cancel time deposits, the current demand deposit rate is applied. Since the rate was 0.001 percent at that time, the bank calculated the cancellation rate to zero. However, regulations stipulate that interest on canceled time deposits should not be below those of regular deposits.
The bank considered measures after this point was made by some depositors.
"We should have noticed the problem when we reduced interest rates (on demand deposits from 0.02 to 0.001 percent) in April, and we apologize to our customers," bank officials said.
The problem did not arise at the former Sanwa Bank or at UFJ Bank because they calculate interest rates to three decimal places.