The was a Japanese bank with dual headquarters in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

and

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

. It was formed in April 1990 as the Mitsui Taiyo Kobe Bank (MTKB) by the merger of

Mitsui Bank was a major Japanese bank from 1876 to 1990. The home bank of the Mitsui conglomerate, it was one of the largest Japanese banks for much of the 20th century, together with Dai-Ichi Bank, Mitsubishi Bank, Sumitomo Bank, and Yasuda / Fuji Bank. I ...

(founded 1876) and Taiyo Kobe Bank (founded 1973). The Sakura Bank name was adopted in April 1992. Sakura Bank in turn merged with the Sumitomo Bank in 2001 to form the

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is a Japanese multinational banking financial services institution owned by the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, which is also known as the SMBC Group. It is headquartered in the same building as SMBC Group in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. ...

History

The TKB-Mitsui merger, agreed in 1989 during the height of the

Japanese asset price bubble The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. In early 1992, this price bubble burst and the country's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceler ...

, was to create the second largest bank in the world behind Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. While TKB had a large base of individual and small business customers, Mitsui had a complementary base of larger institutional clients. The merger was aimed at leveraging these synergies, as well as providing stronger competition against European banks, which were expected to consolidate following a deregulation in 1992. Sakura became a major corporate and retail bank in the

Greater Tokyo Area The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefecture, Gunma, Ibaraki Prefecture, ...

during the 1990s and was the largest retail bank in Japan by several measures, including housing loan and investment trust sales. Sakura incurred massive bad loan write-offs in 1998 and approached one of its major corporate customers,

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

, for financial support, which was rejected. Sakura led the consortium that established Japan Net Bank, an online bank, in 2000, and began talks with

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

to establish a second online banking operation in Japan. Sakura merged with The Sumitomo Bank on April 1, 2001, forming the

. The merger was approved in June 2000 and combined Sakura's strong retail operation and eastern Japan presence with Sumitomo's strong wholesale operation and western Japan presence. The merger created the world's third-largest banking group at the time, after

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

and the pending merger that would form

Mizuho Bank is the integrated retail and corporate banking unit of Mizuho Financial Group (; ). It is one of the largest financial services company in Japan with total assets of approximately $1.9 trillion USD in 2023, and considered one of Japan's three ...

. Sakura Bank used the SWIFT code "MITKJPJT," derived from the "Mitsui Taiyo Kobe" name.

References

Defunct banks of Japan Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies formerly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Banks disestablished in 2001 Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Financial services companies based in Tokyo Mitsui 1990 establishments in Japan Banks established in 1990 Japanese companies disestablished in 2001 Japanese companies established in 1990 2001 mergers and acquisitions {{asia-bank-stub