Mizuho Ordered to Improve Biz over Last Week's System Glitch

Tokyo, Feb. 15 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Financial Services Agency has issued business improvement orders to Mizuho Bank and its parent, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. <8411>, over last Friday's system failure that made some of the bank's automated teller machines unusable, it was learned Tuesday.

The major Japanese bank and the holding company were ordered to report to the FSA quickly about the cause of the glitch and prevention measures, according to sources familiar with the matter. The order was issued based on the banking business law.

Mizuho Bank has been hit by a series of system failures since February last year. The latest problem came after the Mizuho group submitted a set of improvement measures over the past glitches to the government agency only last month and new Mizuho Financial President Masahiro Kihara took office Feb. 1.

Among the Mizuho Bank bases hit by Friday's glitch included nine with only one ATM each. The bank temporarily halted the operations of ATMs at 90 places across the nation on the day to fix the problem.

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[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]