Message from President

We would like to express our deepest condolences to everyone who has suffered in the Great East Japan Earthquake and hope that the afflicted region is able to recover as quickly as possible.

In fiscal 2010, the Japanese economy continued to stage a moderate recovery due to a pick up in production activities and sustained personal consumption resulting from government stimulus packages. However, employment conditions remained harsh, with economic activity slowing down substantially at the end of the term due to the impact of the earthquake disaster in March. On the financial side, the appreciation of the yen continued from the summer onwards, exerting an especially strong impact on export industries. The Japanese government intervened in the foreign exchange market for the first time in six and a half years, and successively implemented additional monetary easing measures in response to the earthquake disaster.

Under these circumstances, we positioned the three years from April 2010 to March 2013 as the time to “Renew endeavor to achieve sustainable growth,” and in order to steadily achieve our goal of being a financial group with \10 trillion in deposits we have been implementing our Mid-term Management Plan “Road to 10.” The Plan is based on the following three policies: “Strengthening Market Capabilities,” “Increasing Management Efficiency,” and “Cementing Customer Loyalty.”

In May 2011, we migrated to the new banking system (MEJAR), which was jointly developed by three banks including the Bank of Yokohama. By strategically leveraging this new system, we will pursue further Group synergies by increasing customer convenience, integrating business processes, standardizing back office work, reducing development costs, and strengthening marketing capabilities through more efficient use of personnel.

The outlook is for economic uncertainty due to the earthquake disaster, restrictions on electric power supply, and other factors. However, through additional management efforts, we will fulfill our mission as a regional financial institution, and in the spirit of our management philosophy of “prospering together with the region” we will aim to achieve greater success together with our customers.

We therefore ask for your continued support and loyal patronage.

June, 2011

President  Shigeo Takagi
Deputy President  Yoshihiro Sekihachi