Japan’s Mizuho Launching FinTech Venture

Mizuho Financial Group, the Japanese financial company, is gearing up to launch a venture in June to create new businesses with FinTech.

According to a report in Reuters, Daisuke Yamada, Mizuho’s chief digital innovation officer, said in an interview the company already has around 20 projects in the pipeline to launch the venture with some using blockchain technology and others focused on artificial intelligence in areas including farming and travel. The executive noted Mizuho will limit its share of the venture, which hasn’t been named yet, to under 15 percent.

“If we try to pursue business innovation within the bank, we have to ask around for permission from people in risk management, compliance and others. It takes forever,” said the executive. “It’s not like building nuclear reactors or railway systems. If projects flop, all the costs wasted will be labor costs; we can move on to the next ones.”

Reuters noted that Yamada wouldn’t say more about the projects but did say the venture is gearing up to conduct an export transaction in June using blockchain technology. The transaction will enable parties to exchange documents online instead of getting hard copies. Blockchain is attractive to financial companies because they are hoping the new technology will reduce the costs and complexity with international payments and securities settlements, among other things.

Mizuho is among a growing list of financial services companies around the globe who are embracing FinTech, whether it’s investing in startups, partnering them or buying them outright. Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs issued a report in which it said Brazil is seeing a boom in FinTech companies, which will chip away at the traditional financial players in the country’s dominance.

According to a report in The New York Times, Goldman Sachs’ new report, “FinTech Brazil’s Moment,” shows that greater than 200 financial technology companies located in Brazil should generate a potential revenue collectively of about $24 billion over the course of the next 10 years. Payments, lending and personal finance are three promising segments, as is insurance, Goldman Sachs said in the report.