Japan # 39; s Yakuza: Inside the union
The Financial Services Agency has ordered Mizuho Bank to stop lending money to yakuza and said the bank seemed to make little progress in the fight against the problem.
Mizuho, the third largest bank, processed about 200 million transactions for anti-social forces, a broad term commonly used in Japan to refer to mobsters, the FSA said Friday.
The financial watchdog scolded Mizuho to take any significant action to address the issue since it was revealed two years ago and has serious problems with compliance monitoring.
The FSA has asked Mizuho to make a clean break unions yakuza after the lender was found to have made 230 suspicious transactions, primarily in the form of auto loans.
In the first order of its kind against a national bank since 2007.
Mizuho must now formulate measures to prevent a recurrence and to present an October 28 business improvement plan the agency said Mizuho must also submit progress reports at the end of November and December, and every three months of the.
According to the Agency of the national police, the authorities have stepped up efforts to fight against the Yakuza as the Italian mafia and Chinese triads, the yakuza unions engaged in activities from gambling, drugs and prostitution to loan sharking, racketeering , money laundering, white-collar crime and business conducted by front companies.
Friday's action is the latest blow to the FSA after Mizuho punished for a small computer glitch that delayed transactions in March 2011 after the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami.
Mizuho said Friday in a statement that he takes this order very seriously and deeply regrets these occurrences The bank added that it expresses his deepest apologies and sincere to customers and all parties related to any concerns or the inconvenience.
Yakuza syndicates themselves are not illegal, have always been tolerated by the authorities, although there are periodic crackdowns on some of their less savory activities.
In 2007, the FSA ordered the banking unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. to suspend some of its operations for a week after discovering a branch in Hyogo Prefecture had done business with antisocial group for over 30 years.
Loans to yakuza must stop FSA warns against Mizuho The Japan Times, loans, yakuza, stop.