Mizuho Bank's attempt to integrate the computer systems of the former Mizuho Bank and Mizuho Corporate Bank will be delayed by a year until spring 2017 because development work is taking more time than expected, Mizuho Bank sources said Thursday.
The delay will likely raise the bank's investment in the new computer system to more than ¥300 billion, instead of the range of ¥250 billion to ¥300 billion it anticipated in February last year, the sources said.
After encountering massive computer troubles stemming from a flood of donations after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Mizuho Bank has given priority to integration to forestall similar problems.
The bank's management has decided to "make assurance doubly sure" for the system integration bid, especially after being punished for lending to anti-social forces, one source said, referring to the scandal over car loans to yakuza.
The latest Mizuho Bank was set up in July last year from the merger of retail-oriented Mizuho Bank — itself born in 2002 from the three-way merger of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank, Industrial Bank of Japan — and Mizuho Corporate Bank, which was focused on business clients.
It is currently trying to streamline management by reviewing overlapping operations. Under its initial plan, a new computer system was to be introduced in stages from March 2016, while continuing to use the systems set up by the two predecessor banks.