Mizuho Bank chairman, other executives resign over yakuza loans

President fined but not fired.

Mizuho Financial Group said Mizuho Bank chairman Takashi Tsukamoto, Mizuho's top compliance officer and its risk management director will resign Nov. 1. Dozens of Mizuho employees face salary cuts over the widening scandal involving loans to Japanese yakuza gangsters.

An outside panel reported that its probe found Mizuho lax in cleaning up more than US$2 million in lending, mostly auto loans, to clients associated with "anti-social" elements, a catchphrase for organized crime.

It said Mizuho failed to do what was expected to reduce and prevent mob-related loans, though it concluded the bank had not engaged in a deliberate cover-up.

The panel headed by former judge Hideki Nakagome, who also led an investigation into accounting fraud at camera and medical equipment maker Olympus Corporation, called the lending "captive loans" acquired when Mizuho bought consumer finance company Orient Corporation.
Mizuho said its president, Yasuhiro Sato, will give up six months of pay but remain at his post. The bank also appointed Tatsuo Kainaka, a former prosecutor and Supreme Court judge with a reputation for toughness, as its chief compliance officer.