Shinsei Bank Ltd. is weighing the potential acquisition of non-bank financial firms in the Asia-Pacific region, under financial conglomerate SBI Holdings Inc., as it seeks to tap a more lucrative business with higher interest rates.
"We are getting many proposals (from investment banks), and we would like to examine each of them,” Shinsei Chief Executive Officer Katsuya Kawashima said in an interview. Non-bank finance — providing consumer loans, credit card and other business through its retail units — is "one of the few markets where interest rates remain. There is potential.”
Kawashima, 59, who took over as CEO after Japan’s biggest online brokerage forced a management change after it acquired about a 48% stake in Shinsei in December, said regional emerging markets also offer "big opportunities.” Investors are watching for how the former SBI Holdings senior executive builds out maverick financier Yoshitaka Kitao’s ambition of creating a banking alliance to transform finance in the nation and rival its conservative old guard.