Senior Bank Analyst - Japanese Banks, Windamee Research

J. Brian Waterhouse

Senior Bank Analyst - Japanese Banks

Windamee Research

Japanese Banks

Equity Bottom-Up

Mizuho Financial Group / Equity Bottom-Up

In Japanese lore, 7 is a lucky number.  But not if you are a member of the embattled management team of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/mizuho-financial-group-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:219:1" rel="noopener">Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JP)</a>.  Mizuho Bank has now had seven systems failures so far this year, prompting an unprecedented response from the FSA.  The FSA has not only issued Mizuho Bank with yet another Business Correction Order (BCO) but has also taken the highly unusual step of announcing that it will be closely monitoring the forthcoming detailed inspection of the group’s seemingly troubled ‘MINORI’ core computer system, while stopping short of directing operations itself.While management searches for solutions, and the inevitable finger-pointing continues, the bank’s reputation erodes.  Foreign investors still own in aggregate over 22% of MHFG’s stock (as of 31 March 2021), although this ratio may have changed significantly within the last six months.  While the Topix and Nikkei 225 indices have risen to levels not seen in over three decades, with banks initially outperforming the broader Topix index for the first time since 2015, the banking sector is now losing momentum as credit concerns build.  In short, there are far better investment opportunities to be found elsewhere in the Japanese stock market.Caveat Emptor! (May the Buyer Beware!) remains our advice to would-be investors in this enormous but highly volatile banking group.

In Japanese lore, 7 is a lucky number.  But not if you are a member of the embattled management team of Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JP).  Mizuho Bank has now had seven systems failures so far this year, prompting an unprecedented response from the FSA.  The FSA has not only issued Mizuho Bank with yet another Business Correction Order (BCO) but has also taken the highly unusual step of announcing that it will be closely monitoring the forthcoming detailed inspection of the group’s seemingly troubled ‘MINORI’ core computer system, while stopping short of directing operations itself.While management searches for solutions, and the inevitable finger-pointing continues, the bank’s reputation erodes.  Foreign investors still own in aggregate over 22% of MHFG’s stock (as of 31 March 2021), although this ratio may have changed significantly within the last six months.  While the Topix and Nikkei 225 indices have risen to levels not seen in over three decades, with banks initially outperforming the broader Topix index for the first time since 2015, the banking sector is now losing momentum as credit concerns build.  In short, there are far better investment opportunities to be found elsewhere in the Japanese stock market.Caveat Emptor! (May the Buyer Beware!) remains our advice to would-be investors in this enormous but highly volatile banking group.

Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JP):  Not So Lucky 7

Silver Point

Thomas J. Monaco

Independent Insight Provider

Silver Point is a boutique research firm that focuses on the broader financial services sector, with a particular focus on troubled institutions globally. 

Asia Ex Japan

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MUFG) / Equity Bottom-Up

*USB Pounces Quickly: US Bancorp (USB.US) announced the acquisition of MUFG’s West Coast regional bank (Union Bank) for USD 8.0 bn in a 70/30 cash/stock transaction. Admittedly, this transaction is smaller than we had anticipated – only being Union Bank, the largest portion of MUFG Americas, MUFG’s US bank holding company; and  *Headache Relieved: MUFG recently received a regulatory C&amp;D for "unsafe and unsound practices" with respect to operational risk management and non-compliance with security standards. USB is now the responsible party. MUFG receives USD 5.5 bn in cash and a 2.9% stake in USB, and likely will record a gain of JPY 150 bn. At MUFG Americas, approximately USD 22.6 bn in assets remains at the CIB.

*USB Pounces Quickly: US Bancorp (USB.US) announced the acquisition of MUFG’s West Coast regional bank (Union Bank) for USD 8.0 bn in a 70/30 cash/stock transaction. Admittedly, this transaction is smaller than we had anticipated – only being Union Bank, the largest portion of MUFG Americas, MUFG’s US bank holding company; and  *Headache Relieved: MUFG recently received a regulatory C&amp;D for "unsafe and unsound practices" with respect to operational risk management and non-compliance with security standards. USB is now the responsible party. MUFG receives USD 5.5 bn in cash and a 2.9% stake in USB, and likely will record a gain of JPY 150 bn. At MUFG Americas, approximately USD 22.6 bn in assets remains at the CIB. 

*For Sale: According to press reports, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.JP) [MUFG] is contemplating a sale of its US banking subsidiary, MUFG Americas – the 22nd largest bank in the US by assets, in a significant strategy shift;  and  *Don’t Expect A Big Premium: Bloomberg suggests that the median sale price for large US banks was approximately 1.4x P/BV last year – implying a deal price of over USD 22 bn. In addition to the price tag limiting the number of potential suitors, any acquirer will have to contend with breaching the national deposit cap. As such, pricing likely would below last year’s US average – particularly considering MUFG America’s fundamental challenges.

*For Sale: According to press reports, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.JP) [MUFG] is contemplating a sale of its US banking subsidiary, MUFG Americas – the 22nd largest bank in the US by assets, in a significant strategy shift;  and  *Don’t Expect A Big Premium: Bloomberg suggests that the median sale price for large US banks was approximately 1.4x P/BV last year – implying a deal price of over USD 22 bn. In addition to the price tag limiting the number of potential suitors, any acquirer will have to contend with breaching the national deposit cap. As such, pricing likely would below last year’s US average – particularly considering MUFG America’s fundamental challenges.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group – US Exit

On Monday 23 August, Mizuho Bank suffered its 6th systems failure so far this year.  This time, some 130 of its around 5,300 ATMs stopped working for about an hour just after noon.  This comes in the wake of last Friday’s débâcle, when the bank opened its doors for business at 09:00am but none of the computer terminals at its counters nationwide would function properly.  Are these repeated systems failures simply a hardware problem, a software problem, or is the fundamental problem a more human one?
While management searches for solutions, and the inevitable finger-pointing continues, the bank’s reputation erodes.  The damage to the share price of parent company Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JP) has so far been comparatively light, but for how much longer?  MHFG has markedly underperformed its two megabank rivals <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/mitsubishi-ufj-financial-group" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:218:1" rel="noopener">Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MUFG) (8306 JP)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sumitomo-mitsui-financial-group-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:217:1" rel="noopener">Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316 JP)</a> so far this year in a rising market, with its stock price up just +6.5% YoY against MUFG’s +34.6% and SMFG’s +21.3%, respectively.  Foreign investors still own in aggregate over 22% of MHFG’s stock, but their patience is being sorely tested.  Further revelations of systems mishaps, or punitive actions by the FSA against MHFG, may well lead to a swift exit by some shareholders; a sell-off cannot be ruled out.
Caveat Emptor! (May the Buyer Beware!) remains our advice to would-be investors in this enormous but highly volatile banking group.

On Monday 23 August, Mizuho Bank suffered its 6th systems failure so far this year.  This time, some 130 of its around 5,300 ATMs stopped working for about an hour just after noon.  This comes in the wake of last Friday’s débâcle, when the bank opened its doors for business at 09:00am but none of the computer terminals at its counters nationwide would function properly.  Are these repeated systems failures simply a hardware problem, a software problem, or is the fundamental problem a more human one?
While management searches for solutions, and the inevitable finger-pointing continues, the bank’s reputation erodes.  The damage to the share price of parent company Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JP) has so far been comparatively light, but for how much longer?  MHFG has markedly underperformed its two megabank rivals Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MUFG) (8306 JP) and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316 JP) so far this year in a rising market, with its stock price up just +6.5% YoY against MUFG’s +34.6% and SMFG’s +21.3%, respectively.  Foreign investors still own in aggregate over 22% of MHFG’s stock, but their patience is being sorely tested.  Further revelations of systems mishaps, or punitive actions by the FSA against MHFG, may well lead to a swift exit by some shareholders; a sell-off cannot be ruled out.
Caveat Emptor! (May the Buyer Beware!) remains our advice to would-be investors in this enormous but highly volatile banking group.

Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JP):  Systemic Failures - A Human Factor?

Gotōbi (or 五十日 in Japanese) is any date with a ‘5’ or a ‘0’ in it.  In Japan, traditionally, it is a day when money owed is collected and accounts due are settled.  Fridays are always busy days commercially, but when Friday is also a gotōbi things get particularly hectic.  It is a busy day for the banks, too, with a noticeable rise in customer visits to branches and a surge in across-counter transactions, especially in cash and securities.Last Friday, 20th August 2021, was a gotōbi. Imagine, then, the horror that seized bank staff at all 450+ branches of Mizuho Bank (not to mention at its sister organisation Mizuho Trust Bank, where the same thing happened), as 09:00am bank opening time approached, customers were queuing up, and they realised that none of the computer terminals at their counters were working.  None of them; nationwide.Curiously, all the ATMs (source of two previous systems failures) were working normally, as was Mizuho Bank’s Internet banking platform, ‘Mizuho Direct’.  By 10:00am on Friday, most operations were back up and running (except for some foreign currency remittances) and by midday all systems appear to have returned to normal operation.  Management is still trying to establish the cause of the glitch.This now makes the 5th time in 2021 that Mizuho Bank, the principal commercial banking subsidiary of megabank holding company <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/mizuho-financial-group-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:219:1" rel="noopener">Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JP)</a> (MHFG), has had a systems failure.  That it happened on a gotōbi was embarrassing enough in view of the inconvenience to the many customers visiting the bank’s branches at the time.  Doubly embarrassing for management, inspectors from the Financial Services Agency (FSA) were in the process of winding-up their detailed and long inspection of the bank over the four previous systems malfunctions, with a view to deciding whether the bank should be disciplined for the successive failures through the issuance of a Business Correction Order.  That issuance would now seem to be an inevitability.  A formal demand for a detailed report into the incident (報告微求命令 or hōkoku bikyū meirei in Japanese) has already been issued by the FSA to Mizuho Trust Bank as well as to the parent MHFG.Senior management clearly has much to do in the wake of this latest incident to restore Mizuho’s reputation among customers as a brand that is synonymous with reliability.As we have said in past Smartkarma Insights, MHFG’s lack of consistency, either in profit generation or management execution, makes this a difficult stock to recommend on fundamentals.  This latest systems débâcle will not improve its already battered reputation.  MHFG has time and again promised much but then has either failed to deliver or has surprised the market with sudden sweeping changes in strategy, requiring long time-horizons for implementation and where ultimately delivering value remains frustratingly elusive.Caveat Emptor! (May the Buyer Beware!) remains our advice to would-be investors in this enormous but highly volatile banking group.

Gotōbi (or 五十日 in Japanese) is any date with a ‘5’ or a ‘0’ in it.  In Japan, traditionally, it is a day when money owed is collected and accounts due are settled.  Fridays are always busy days commercially, but when Friday is also a gotōbi things get particularly hectic.  It is a busy day for the banks, too, with a noticeable rise in customer visits to branches and a surge in across-counter transactions, especially in cash and securities.Last Friday, 20th August 2021, was a gotōbi. Imagine, then, the horror that seized bank staff at all 450+ branches of Mizuho Bank (not to mention at its sister organisation Mizuho Trust Bank, where the same thing happened), as 09:00am bank opening time approached, customers were queuing up, and they realised that none of the computer terminals at their counters were working.  None of them; nationwide.Curiously, all the ATMs (source of two previous systems failures) were working normally, as was Mizuho Bank’s Internet banking platform, ‘Mizuho Direct’.  By 10:00am on Friday, most operations were back up and running (except for some foreign currency remittances) and by midday all systems appear to have returned to normal operation.  Management is still trying to establish the cause of the glitch.This now makes the 5th time in 2021 that Mizuho Bank, the principal commercial banking subsidiary of megabank holding company Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JP) (MHFG), has had a systems failure.  That it happened on a gotōbi was embarrassing enough in view of the inconvenience to the many customers visiting the bank’s branches at the time.  Doubly embarrassing for management, inspectors from the Financial Services Agency (FSA) were in the process of winding-up their detailed and long inspection of the bank over the four previous systems malfunctions, with a view to deciding whether the bank should be disciplined for the successive failures through the issuance of a Business Correction Order.  That issuance would now seem to be an inevitability.  A formal demand for a detailed report into the incident (報告微求命令 or hōkoku bikyū meirei in Japanese) has already been issued by the FSA to Mizuho Trust Bank as well as to the parent MHFG.Senior management clearly has much to do in the wake of this latest incident to restore Mizuho’s reputation among customers as a brand that is synonymous with reliability.As we have said in past Smartkarma Insights, MHFG’s lack of consistency, either in profit generation or management execution, makes this a difficult stock to recommend on fundamentals.  This latest systems débâcle will not improve its already battered reputation.  MHFG has time and again promised much but then has either failed to deliver or has surprised the market with sudden sweeping changes in strategy, requiring long time-horizons for implementation and where ultimately delivering value remains frustratingly elusive.Caveat Emptor! (May the Buyer Beware!) remains our advice to would-be investors in this enormous but highly volatile banking group.

Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JP):  Gotohbi Gremlins

Japan

Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. provides comprehensive financial services through its subsidiaries. The Group provides variety of financial services such as general banking, securities brokerage, trust banking, and assets management.

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Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JP)