Line and Mizuho plan new mobile bank in Japan
Line and Mizuho Financial Group are planning to establish a new smartphone-based bank in Japan.
No exact date for launch has been decided yet
The duo has agreed to establish a joint venture to start discussions on making the bank through their subsidiaries (Line Financial and Mizuho Bank).
No exact date for launch has been decided yet but the “tentative” name for the entity is “Line Bank Preparatory Company”. That’ll need more work.
It will have capital and capital reserves of JPY 2 billion ($17.5 million). Line will own 51%, while Mizuho Bank will have 49%.
Line already has Line Financial – providing an investment service (Line Smart Invest) and non-life insurance service (Line Insurance) through its messaging app, “while preparing for other financial services including other securities and loan services”.
Mizuho has plenty of financial expertise and together with Line’s app they will seek to tap into Japan’s smartphone generation.
According to the pair, there are over 78 million monthly active users in the country. Japan’s total population is 126.8 million.
Other matters, including company information of the new bank, details of the services, and actual schedules will come later.
They will have some rivals.
As reported this year, SoftBank and friends unveiled a proof of concept (PoC) for a blockchain-based mobile payments service.
In addition, the titanic trio of SoftBank, Yahoo Japan and India’s Paytm ganged up to unveil PayPay – a smartphone payment service using barcodes.
