The Financial Services Agency on Tuesday issued a business practice improvement order to Mizuho Bank and its parent, Mizuho Financial Group Inc., over a massive computer system glitch in March.
In its second system glitch, following one in 2002, Mizuho Bank intermittently suspended banking services after transfer requests for donations to victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami exceeded the capacity of the bank's computer system.
Given that the service suspension left more than 1 million transactions unprocessed and added to uncertainty after the disaster, the FSA urged the bank to strictly specify responsibility regarding the breaddown and fundamentally improve its computer system.
A neutral panel set up by the bank to investigate the glitch submitted a report May 20 concluding that Mizuho Bank officials in charge of the system had not been fully aware of its capacity and lacked other basic knowledge, and their risk management was insufficient.
Mizuho Financial Group said last week that Mizuho Bank President Satoru Nishibori would resign in June to take responsibility for the computer trouble.
It also said Mizuho Financial Group would merge its two core banking units — Mizuho Bank for retail customers and Mizuho Corporate Bank for large corporate clients — in two or three years and integrate computer systems within the group.