Sony Bank ( ja, ソニーバンク, ソニー銀行) is a Japanese

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with ...

established in April 2001. It operates as a

direct bank A direct bank (sometimes called a branch-less bank or virtual bank) is a bank that offers its services only via the Internet, email, and other electronic means, often including telephone, online chat, and mobile check deposit. A direct bank has no ...

and has no physical branches or ATMs. It is one of the largest online banks in Japan and a subsidiary of

Sony Financial Holdings , founded on 1 April 2004 as Sony Financial Holdings Inc., is a Japanese holding company for Sony's financial services business and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It operates various businesses, including both life and non-life insurances, ...

, the financial business unit of the multinational conglomerate

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

. Its main business is offering

online banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, web banking or home banking, is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial ins ...

with foreign currency deposits,

investment trust An investment trust is a form of investment fund found mostly in the United Kingdom and Japan. Investment trusts are constituted as public limited companies and are therefore closed ended since the fund managers cannot redeem or create shares. ...

s, and home loans.

History

A reduction in regulations in Japan at the end of the 1990s encouraged a number of companies to enter the banking sector for the first time. Sony faced challenges as it began Sony Bank. In 2001, when Sony Bank was founded, Web use was limited in Japan as compared with the United States.Bach, Deborah. "Sony Counting on its Brand as a Magnet for its Web Bank." American Banker: 12. ProQuest Research Library. Jun 12 2001. Web. 27 May 2012. Only 24 million people used the Internet every month at that time. Still, the company remained hopeful that infrastructure would improve. Sony claimed its move into banking went hand-in-hand with its shift from a manufacturing focus to a focus on content such as

films A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

and

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

.Bach, Deborah. "Sony Seeks Japanese License for Web Bank; Morgan has Role." American Banker: 1. ProQuest Research Library. Feb 01 2001. Web. 27 May 2012. Sony announced its new banking unit in March 2000. The bank started doing business on June 11, 2001. The company began with ¥37.5 billion of capital. It had around 80 employees at the time. It added 340 online accounts during its first hour of operation. At the time, the company offered yen-deposit accounts,

s, card loans, and bank payments. It hoped to expand into foreign currency deposit accounts,

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the ...

s, and housing loans by 2002. It also hoped to allow its customers to use automated teller machines from the

Japan Post was a Japanese statutory corporation that existed from 2003 to 2007, offering postal and package delivery services, banking services, and life insurance. It's the nation's largest employer, with over 400,000 employees, and runs 24,700 pos ...

. In 2001, Sony Bank hoped to accumulate 400,000 customers by 2004. In February 2001, the company had hoped to accumulate $5.2 billion in deposits; it adjusted that figure downward to $4.1 billion in deposits three months later. In February 2001, the company aimed to gain $8.6 billion in deposits by 2006. Analysts at the time were generally upbeat about the prospects for the bank. Raymond H. Graber of TowerGroup suggested the bank could synergize with the other operations of

Sony Financial , founded on 1 April 2004 as Sony Financial Holdings Inc., is a Japanese holding company for Sony's financial services business and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It operates various businesses, including both life and non-life insurances, onl ...

. Still, Paul Jamieson of Gomez Advisors warned that customers would have high expectations for Sony Bank, given Sony's existing reputation for the ease of use and elegant design of its products. Shigeru Ishii was appointed and served as the first president of Sony Bank."ENTERPRISE: COMPANIES: Online and in the Money." Asiaweek Aug 10 2001: 1-. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 27 May 2012. the company faced weak earnings."J.P. Morgan Chase & Co." Wall Street Journal: 1. ABI/INFORM Global. Sep 15 2005. Web. 27 May 2012. By 2007, Sony Bank had accumulated 500,000 customers.Pilling, David. "Camera Sales Raise Sonys Game." Financial Times: 23. ABI/INFORM Global. Jul 27 2007. Web. 27 May 2012. That year, Sony planned to add an

electronic trading platform In finance, an electronic trading platform also known as an online trading platform, is a computer software program that can be used to place orders for financial products over a network with a financial intermediary. Various financial products ...

. In 2011, Sony had considered expanding its banking business into the Australian market, only to abandon the idea in 2013. In 2019, Sony Bank started an English-language online banking service to meet the need of increasing foreign residents in Japan.

Ownership

Upon the bank's founding in 2001, Sony owned 80% of the bank. By 2005, its stake had risen to 84.2% and

became the intermediate

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

of the bank.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is a Japanese multinational banking and financial services institution headquartered in Yurakucho, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The group operates in retail, corporate, and investment banking segment worldwide. It provides financial products and ser ...

owned a 16% initial stake in the company and allowed Sony Bank customers to access its 7,600

automated teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) or cash machine (in British English) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, fund ...

s. Sony Group is considered to be a

Mitsui is one of the largest ''keiretsu'' in Japan and one of the largest corporate groups in the world. The major companies of the group include Mitsui & Co. ( general trading company), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nippon Paper Industries ...

keiretsu A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. In the legal sense, it is a type of informal business group that are loosely organized alliances within the social world of Japan's business community. The '' ...

. Sumitomo Mitsui had reduced its share to 12.6% by 2005. Upon the bank's founding in 2001,

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, t ...

owned a 4% stake in the bank. JPMorgan had hoped to expand its

asset In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that c ...

and

wealth management Wealth management (WM) or wealth management advisory (WMA) is an investment advisory service that provides financial management and wealth advisory services to a wide array of clients ranging from affluent to high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high ...

services in Japan. The company reduced its ownership to 3.2% by 2005. It sold off its entire stake in 2005, claiming to have discussed the move with Sony in advance. By the divestiture made by JP Morgan, Sony increased its ownership to 87.4%. In 2008, Sony Bank became a wholly owned subsidiary of

after Sumitomo Mitsui sold its remaining stake to Sony.

References

External links

Sony Bank
in Japanese {{Authority control

Bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

Banks established in 2001 Banks of Japan Companies based in Tokyo