Japanese Banks Will Finally Stop Using a Piece of 1800s Technology

Main Points: not right away, but slowly and steadily

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., the country’s biggest lender, is a case in point. The bank has started offering accounts that don’t require hanko or passbooks and is overhauling its branch network to replace rows of tellers with tablet computers and video booths.

The goal is to help customers adapt to digital platforms so they can eventually do more banking on their own devices. As many as 100 of MUFG’s 500-plus domestic outlets will convert to the new format by 2024. The Tokyo-based lender plans to halve the number of branches with traditional counters over the same period.

MUFG isn’t alone. Resona Holdings Inc. last year started allowing customers to open accounts without hanko at about 600 branches. The shift to digital has support from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration, which has drafted a bill to make more government services available online.

Winning over Japan’s bureaucracy hasn’t been easy. It took MUFG two years to convince 450 local governments to begin processing tax payments electronically, said Takayuki Ogura, a director at the group’s main banking unit.

Lenders have begun allowing customers to transfer money or make payments with their smartphone or a tablet, instead of pressing wood to ink and paper like their ancestors. For millennials in Japan, one of the most tech-obsessed places on Earth, the change is long overdue.

“It’s too much work to bring hanko and do the paperwork just to withdraw money at branches,” said Tomoyuki Shiraishi, a 24-year-old construction worker in Kurashiki, western Japan.

Clicks below for details :

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-08/japanese-banks-will-finally-stop-using-a-piece-of-1800s-technology?cmpid=socialflow-facebook-business&utm_content=business&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social