Sony Bank
|
Native name
|
ソニーバンク, ソニー銀行 |
|---|---|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Banking |
| Founded | June 11, 2001 |
| Headquarters | Nishikichō, Tokyo, Japan |
| Products | Foreign currency deposits, investment trust, home loans |
| Owner | Sony |
| Parent | Sony Financial |
| Website | sonybank |
Sony Bank (Japanese: ソニーバンク, ソニー銀行) is a Japanese commercial bank established in April 2001. It operates as a direct bank and has no physical branches or ATMs. It is a subsidiary of Sony Financial and a member of the Japanese electronics company Sony. Its main business is offering online banking with foreign currency deposits, investment trusts, and home loans.
A reduction in regulations in Japan at the end of the 1990s encouraged a number of companies to enter the banking sector for the first time.
Sony faced challenges as it began Sony Bank. In 2001, when Sony Bank was founded, Web use was limited in Japan as compared with the United States. Only 24 million people used the Internet every month at that time. Still, the company remained hopeful that infrastructure would improve. Sony claimed its move into banking went hand-in-hand with its shift from a manufacturing focus to a focus on content such as films and music.
Sony announced its new banking unit in March 2000. The bank started doing business on June 11, 2001. The company began with ¥37.5 billion of capital. It had around 80 employees at the time. It added 340 online accounts during its first hour of operation. At the time, the company offered yen-deposit accounts, investment trusts, card loans, and bank payments. It hoped to expand into foreign currency deposit accounts, credit cards, and housing loans by 2002. It also hoped to allow its customers to use automated teller machines from the Japan Post.
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