March 29, 2000 The Sakura Bank, Limited Equity Participation of NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc. in "Internet/Online Specialized Bank" The Sakura Bank, Limited (Akishige Okada, President) and NTT Mobile Communications Network, Inc. (Keiji Tachikawa, President, hereinafter referred toas "NTT DoCoMo") have agreed that NTT DoCoMo will take a 5% stake in "Internet/Online Specialized Bank (Japan Net Bank - provisional name)" and that Sakura and NTT DoCoMo will jointly develop financial services, after having negotiated for their strategic alliance. "Japan Net Bank" is being prepared to be established by the Sakura Bank together with the Sumitomo Bank and other alliance partners to start business in the first-half of FY 2000, with a capital of￥20 billion. NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service, which provides direct access to Internet via cellular phone, is explosively gaining popularity and its subscribers have exceeded 5 million for just over one year after its start, and the company aims at strategically strengthening/developing "financial contents/settlement functions" as "core" contents on the Internet, which are also indispensable for providing every kind of service contents. NTT DoCoMo confirmed that the direction of its strategy is same as that of Sakura's, which aims at making its internet bank de facto standard in Japan and thereby enclosing customers at an early stage, developing/expanding innovative mobile banking services. While the existing mobile banking offers part of limited banking services, such as balance inquiry, debit/credit details inquiry, money transfers, etc., "Japan Net Bank" and NTT DoCoMo plan to provide customers with full banking services through i-mode, including handling Time Deposits, changes in addresses, etc. and to jointly promote studying/developing new service menus with a high convenience, such as information service for receipt of transferred money, ATM map guide service, etc. The Sakura Bank is currently preparing to establish "Japan Net Bank", cooperating with Fujitsu Ltd., Nippon Life Insurance Co., Tokyo Electric Power Co., Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and Sumitomo Bank, Sakura's integration partner, each of which has huge customer base, net business scheme and leading contents. This strategic alliance with NTT DoCoMo is highly meaningful as an important and the most appropriate one to meet a full swing mobile age to come from now, and the Bank aims at realizing advantageous and convenient financial services in the network society, also in the mobile online area. Share Holding Ratio of
"Japan Net Bank" as of its Establishment
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright(C)2000 THE SAKURA BANK, LIMITED