By Arata Hashizume / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
Major Japanese trust company Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Ltd. will enhance sales of investment products that hedge against inflation, President Manatomo Yoneyama said during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Yoneyama also revealed the company's plan to invest up to 380 billion yen in AI and other digital technology by fiscal 2028, ending March 2029.
The following is excerpted from the interview.
Manatomo Yoneyama: Our new medium-term business plan commenced in April. We successfully achieved our major financial targets by fiscal 2025 -- a full five years ahead of schedule. I'm proud to conclude that we have managed to steadily grow our customer base and strengthen our business foundation.
An era of negative monetary policy has ended, but our stock price lags those of the three megabanks. We have set ambitious goals (in the new business plan) to make our presence felt among the financial groups (in Japan). We position the next three years (of the business plan) as a period to lay the foundation for a major leap forward.
The Yomiuri Shimbun: What is needed to build a foundation for achieving your goals?
Yoneyama: In an era with positive interest rates and an inflationary environment, we will make the asset management business our growth engine. The other key area is business that capitalizes on corporate balance sheet assets. If we look at domestic demographics, the total amount of deposits is unlikely to increase significantly, meaning the room for growth is limited. We generate revenue from client assets. We will expand areas where we can achieve wide interest margins and high returns, such as product-based lending.
The first project for our domestic diversified infrastructure fund has finished, and applications for the second project are nearly complete. For the third project, we aim to expand our investor base to include foreign institutions and individual investors. Since many of our current retail customers hold only deposits, actively engaging them is worth a try.
We are primarily targeting the middle-aged demographic. Products that can hedge against inflation are ideal and we are focused on significantly driving up sales in this area.
Yomiuri: SBI Sumishin Net Bank, Ltd., jointly operated by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank and NTT Docomo, Inc., will be transformed into Docomo SMTB Net Bank Inc. in August. What are your plans after the change?
Yoneyama: By leveraging (NTT Docomo's) "d Point" ecosystem, we aim to increase accounts (for Docomo SMTB Net Bank) by 2 million annually and expand to 15 million accounts by 2028. The bank is said to have been acquiring about 800,000 to 900,000 accounts per year, so significant effort will be required to meet this goal. We'll be able to announce specific services in August or later.
Yomiuri: Please tell me your thoughts on Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank's strategy for investing in digital technologies.
Yoneyama: We plan to invest a total of 360 to 380 billion yen in areas such as AI-powered products and services, as well as internal system development.
Additionally, we have secured another 30 billion yen for investments aimed at improving operational efficiency. We estimate that manpower equivalent to 900 personnel can be saved in administrative divisions by fiscal 2028. We anticipate significant staff reductions in fields such as planning, clerical work and contract management. These personnel will be transferred to the sales department, which we have designated as a priority area for conducting business in personal asset management and high net worth services. The sales department is where we directly communicate with customers to help them make decisions. It will continue to play a pivotal role.
Yomiuri: How do you view the Japanese economy?
Yoneyama: Many customers were actively making capital investments and other business moves in around January and February. However, they have become more cautious in their investments because of the Middle East conflict and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. I am also keeping stagflation in mind as a potential risk. On the other hand, personal consumption remains robust. Companies are now passing on increased costs to consumers, so we expect that once the situation in the Middle East stabilizes, the Japanese economy will return to the moderate growth curve seen at the beginning of the year.
Yomiuri: Could you talk about Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank's strategy for growth investment?
Yoneyama: It's difficult to make decisions on large-scale investments given the situation in the Middle East and other factors. The weak yen is also a concern. However, we do have several candidates. In our medium-term plan, we have announced our policy to invest over 600 billion yen by 2028. Timing is critical in mergers and acquisitions, but we are prepared to move decisively and deliberately when the right opportunities arise. It is important to not stop making investments.
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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.
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June 15, 2026 06:20 ET (10:20 GMT)
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