GMO Internet Group, Japan’s IT giant, internet and financial services provider, announced it is launching a blockchain-based internet bank, called GMO Aozora Net Bank.
According to the document, the new service is provided in partnership with Aozora Bank Group and is described as a “next-generation Internet bank”. The project has been in the pipeline since July 2016.
The majority stake will be held by Aozora Bank, which has 85.1%. The remaining stake is split equally between GMO Internet and GMO Financial Holdings.
The purpose of GMO Aozora Net Bank is to “to provide new financial services through the integration of finance and information technology, responding to the further development of IT and changes in the users”.
The new bank places the customer first at any time and is striving to become the number-one technology bank. It is responding to new consumer demands by leveraging high-level security certificate, the blockchain, AI, IoT, and next-generation media.
According to another press release (in Japanese), that provides more detailed information, the new bank will be providing low-cost banking services to small and medium enterprises and retail customers. There will be savings and deposit accounts, as well as some additional features. The services will be available through a mobile application. The GMO Aozora Net Bank also plans to offer foreign currency deposit accounts, a Visa debit card and the option to trade in securities and forex through an integration with GMO Internet’s brokerage GMO Click Securities.
There are also plans for the development of a new settlement system utilizing blockchain technology.
“Through the application of blockchain technology, there is an increasing expectation for breakthroughs for safer and cheaper payments and financial services,” the announcement said.
GMO Internet Group is a Tokyo-based publicly traded conglomerate that provides a wide array of internet services: web hosting and cloud, ecommerce, security, and payment solutions.
The group also includes the world’s largest online FX trading platform GMO Click Securities, as well as online advertising, Internet media, and mobile entertainment products.
Since 2017 GMO also has a cryptocurrency exchange called GMO Coin. Earlier this year the conglomerate also announced it is developing its own cryptocurrency mining machine.
Aozora Bank is a Japanese commercial bank that has branches across Japan and two representative offices in New York city, Singapore, Seoul, Jakarta and Shanghai, and financing subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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