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Native name | 株式会社あおぞら銀行 |
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| Company type | Public |
| Industry | Money Center Banks |
| Predecessor | Nippon Credit Bank |
| Founded | April 1957; 68 years ago (1957-04)[1] |
| Headquarters | Chiyoda, Tokyo[2], Japan |
Key people | Brian F. Prince (chairman) Shinsuke Baba (president and CEO)[3] |
| Products | Time deposits Investment trusts Individualannuity insurance Telephone banking services ATM alliances Personal loans Asset Management Consulting Services[4] |
| Total assets | ¥5,082.5 BJPY (Sep. 2012) |
Number of employees | 1,359 (Bank only)[5] |
| Website | www.aozorabank.co.jp |
Aozora Bank, Ltd. (株式会社あおぞら銀行,Kabushiki-gaisha Aozora Ginkō; lit. "Blue Sky Bank") is a Japanesecommercial bank that offers service in 19 branches in Japan and in 2 overseas representative offices (as of July 2012).[2] Originally based on the Japanese operations of theBank of Chōsen, it was known from 1957 to 1977 asNippon Fudosan Bank and from 1977 to 2001 asNippon Credit Bank (NCB).
Nippon Fudosan Bank was founded in 1957 to manage the remaining assets of theBank of Chōsen in Japan. It received a special government trust banking license similar to that of theLong-Term Credit Bank of Japan (LTCB), established in 1952. In 1977, it was renamed the Nippon Credit Bank.
In December 1998, NCB was brought under government control in order to deal with its extraordinary amount of bad debt left over from the crash of theJapanese asset price bubble in the early 1990s: at the time, the bank was approximately ¥270 billion in debt.
An investor group led bySoftbank,Orix andTokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co. purchased NCB in 2000 for ¥80 billion.[6] As part of this deal, the government included a "defect warranty provision" (瑕疵担保条項,kashi tanpo jōkō) to the effect that NCB could demand within the next three years that the government purchase any claims which had fallen by twenty percent or more from value. A similar provision had controversially been offered to the purchasers of LTCB, which had recently been similarly purchased from the government and renamedShinsei Bank.[6] Aozora applied this provision conservatively in order to write off ¥400 billion in bad debts owed by about 100 companies, in contrast toShinsei Bank, the contemporaneous successor of the Long-Term Credit Bank, which wrote off nearly three times as much and was criticized in political circles for doing so.
The sale of NCB to Softbank was viewed as a precedent for the licensing ofSony Bank,Seven Bank and other new banking platforms in Japan.[6]
The bank was renamed "Aozora" in 2001. Softbank initially planned to make Aozora an investment bank for internet-related companies. However, Softbank was unsuccessful in obtaining the cooperation of theFinancial Services Agency, and sold its 49% stake toCerberus Capital Management in September 2003 for ¥101 billion.[7] Aozora launched operations as a retail bank on April 1, 2006, and opened its first new branch inNihonbashi on November 20.
Aozora Bank was listed as the No. 1 unsecured creditor toLehman Brothers with about US$463 million in bank loans to the investment bank as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2008. By comparison, the second largest unsecured creditor wasMizuho Bank with $289 million, and third largestCitibank (Hong Kong branch) with $275 million.
On December 16, 2008, Aozora Bank announced that it had ¥12.4 billion exposure to theBernard L. Madoffponzi scheme.[8]
On April 25, 2009, Aozora Bank andShinsei Bank announced negotiations to integrate their operations in the summer of 2010, with an eye toward an eventual merger. Banks had been hit by losses in the US subprime market.[9] The talks collapsed in May 2010 amid disputes over capitalization and business strategy, as well as the abatement of the2008 financial crisis.[10]
Aozora acquired Japan Wealth Management Securities in 2011, merging it with existing subsidiary Aozora Securities in 2012.[11]
In January 2013, Cerberus announced that it would sell most of its stake in Aozora, cutting its total share from 58 percent to 7.7 percent.[12] Cerberus sold this last portion of its stake toBarclays for distribution to other investors in August 2013, ending Cerberus's shareholding in Aozora.[13]
Aozora's head office is located in the Kudan area ofChiyoda City, Tokyo, nearYasukuni Shrine.
The bank has retail branches inChiba,Fukuoka,Hiroshima,Kanazawa,Kyoto,Nagoya,Osaka (Namba andUmeda),Sapporo,Sendai,Takamatsu,Tokyo (Ikebukuro,Jiyugaoka,Nihonbashi,Shibuya,Shinjuku andUeno) andYokohama.
Aozora also hasrepresentative offices inNew York,Singapore,Seoul,Jakarta andShanghai, and financing subsidiaries in theCayman Islands,Hong Kong,Luxembourg, theUnited Kingdom and theUnited States.
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