Todd Bishop
n recent years, the Japanese financial industry has suffered a sharp drop in profits due to narrowing of interest spreads. After Nomura Securities cut 20% of its stores earlier, Mitsubishi UFJ also announced that it will cut its branches by 35% by 2023.
Mitsubishi UFJ plans to integrate or cancel 515 branches nationwide by the end of 2023, which is 35% calculated at the end of March 2018, and the number of branches is reduced to 335.
People switch to online banking services
The bank said that as people switched to online banking services, the number of physical branch visits has decreased, so the target of cutting 20% of branches at the end of 2023 was raised to 35%.
Another major bank, Mizuho Bank, has planned to reduce its national 500 branches to 370 in the fiscal year 2024. Many regional banks with poor profitability also have more mergers.
