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Japan's financial watchdog will order Mizuho, one of the country's biggest banks, to suspend part of its loan business as additional punishment for its links to organized crime, reports said Wednesday.
The order, expected to be issued by the Financial Services Agency (FSA) on Thursday, will stop Mizuho Bank from extending new loans through its affiliated credit company for one month, the Jiji and Kyodo news agencies said.
The agency will also issue business improvement orders to Mizuho's parent firm the Mizuho Financial Group, the reports said.
The group has been under fire since September when it was found to have processed some 230 loans worth about 200 million yen for the country's notorious yakuza crime syndicates, which are involved in activities ranging from prostitution and drugs to extortion and white-collar crime.
In late September the FSA ordered Mizuho Bank to improve operations after it was found to have taken "no substantial steps" to sever the yakuza links for two years after they were discovered.
The FSA decided to take additional punitive action against the group for failing to prevent the bank from submitting a false report on the issue to the agency, Kyodo said.
Mizuho Bank had originally said its top management had been unaware of the yakuza links. But it later admitted that its current and former presidents were in a position to know of the issue.
In late October the bank submitted a report compiled by a third-party panel probing the issue, which said it found no evidence of a cover-up of the scandal.
But the agency examined the claim in November through on-site inspections of Mizuho Bank and Mizuho Financial Group, the reports said.
© (c) 2013 AFP
7 Comments
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paulinusa
If no one is going to jail then why doesn't the FSA impose some big fines as the US and Europe did? Billions of yen could go towards the deficit.
gogogo
Why is Mizuho doing this? Do they have ties to the Yaks? Are they being pressured? Do they only care about money? More info would be good.
Bear27840
When the government does not jail anyone in the bank connected with this I no longer believe in the government.
cloa513
Farmboy-
Its the same everywhere else- no country is willing to face that organised crime is the worst of the worst- bottom 1% in fact 0.001% The scum beneath the scum.
Disillusioned
Ah, so the bank gets further punitive action against them while the Yaks - who are the main problem - get nothing and carry on business as usual. It's not a far stretch of the imagination to believe the bank employees were intimidated into giving these loans and, if they were, they are too afraid to speak up cos of retribution from the Yaks. All I see here is, punishment for the victims and the criminals are laughing.
canadianbento
This Stupid move Ain't going to stop the Gangsters, who continuously commit crimes and ROB the Japanese people...