Mizuho eyes US$11tril held by Japan’s elderly

TOKYO: Mizuho Financial Group’s trust banking arm has its sights set on exactly where Japan’s wealth is: the US$11 trillion (RM44.66 trillion) held by the elderly.

The firm had begun selling a type of trust that gave rich retirees more options to manage their money, and sales of the product were exceeding expectations, said chief executive officer Tetsuo Iimori.

“There’s no question this is going to be a pillar of our retail trust business,” he said.

Japan’s biggest banks are expanding their wealth management business to make up for declining profitability from lending.

The average age of customers of Mizuho Trust & Banking Co’s new “selectable” product is 83.6.

The bank aimed to achieve an asset balance of 300 billion yen (RM10.96 billion) in the next few years and ultimately make it a “trillion-yen business,” said Iimori.

It had already sold about 750 of the trusts since they started in August last year, he said.

Almost 70 per cent of Japan’s roughly 1,800 trillion yen in household financial assets is held by people over the age of 60, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government estimated in a report last year.

Iimori said he also planned to push forward with the unit’s consulting business for pension funds.