The heads of three major banks that recently announced plans to integrate their businesses by creating a holding company hope to raise the profitability of the new joint company by further streamlining its workforce and branches, and by excelling in a full range of financial services. President Masao Nishimura expressed their determination to create a new corporate culture rather than to seek a gradual integration of the individual banks. Initially we were hesitant about entering into a full merger so suddenly, so we agreed to a tie-up with Fuji in the trust banking sector to reduce our respective shortfalls. The reason we were hesitant was because DKB had incurred immense costs by merging and integrating before. However, we thought that, if we utilized the new legal system that allows the establishment of holding companies and facilitates corporate restructuring, we would lose nothing in terms of either time or effort.
Corporate integrations tend to work out well between companies of equal size.
I picked Fuji and IBJ since they are both major banks and both have distinctive business strategies. We agreed that the three banks would each take different roles according to their areas of expertise and operate under completely separate management. We have experience of the anguish of trying to team up staff from different companies. This time, however, we need to speed up the process of arranging the most effective position for each member of staff, rather than taking the time to oversee the smooth integration of employees from different corporate cultures. Some divisions will introduce a salary system fully based on performance.