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To: Edwin S. Fujinaka who wrote (5273)	6/11/2000 10:58:00 PM
From: Yamakita	Respond to of 6018

From Saturday's Nikkei: Issued: June 12, 2000 Internet brokers eager to list Internet-based brokerages are rushing to go public, including ETrade Securities Co., which plans to list on the new Nasdaq-Japan market in the September-December quarter, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported. H.I.S. Kyoritsu Securities Co. plans to register on the over-the-counter market, while Nikko Beans Inc. intends to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Mothers market. Behind the moves are the need to raise funds to expand computer systems to deal with the soaring number of individual investors who trade online. The online brokerages also aim to improve their name recognition by listing. In addition to the three online securities firms, DLJdirect SFG Securities Inc., whose shareholders include Sumi-tomo Bank and Sakura Bank, is considering going public next year. Monex Inc., in which Sony Corp. holds a stake, is also believed to be considering going public. ETrade was established in October 1998 after Softbank Corp. acquired a midsize securities firm, while H.I.S. Kyoritsu Securities was set up in January 1999 by Hideo Sawada, president of H.I.S Co., a leading discount travel agent. Nikko Beans, a subsidiary of Nikko Securities Co., was founded in May 1999. Prior to deregulation of the industry in December 1998, there were restrictions on brokerages going on public. Online trading spread with the liberalization of brokerage commissions in October 1999. It accounted for about 10% of all the individual stock trading at the end of March, thanks to the lower brokerage commissions.

To: Edwin S. Fujinaka who wrote (5273)	6/14/2000 3:34:00 AM
From: Edwin S. Fujinaka	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6018

Perhaps it is better to lie back and let the future unfold. I suppose having the WSJ publish a story about Ryoma the Samurai and Masayoshi the Internet Visionary is not a negative like perhaps being Time Magazines Man of the Year. Anyway, I note that Softbank was up a little in Tokyo and Bloomberg had more banking stuff. I'm not clear on who are partners and who are going to be competitors in the long run, but there seems to be a lot of scrambling going on: Japan's Suruga Bank to Start Net Alliances With Sony, Others By Bradley Meacham Tokyo, June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Suruga Bank Ltd., a Japanese regional bank, said it will start alliances with Sony Corp. and other companies to expand its customer base nationwide. Suruga plans to offer new loan products on Sony's ``So-net'' homepage in early July, said Mitsuyoshi Okano, bank president. The bank also plans to expand ties with Gulliver International Co. Ltd., a Japanese used car retailer, and others to offer new loan products and position itself ahead of nationwide banks eyeing similar operations, he said. The alliances are the latest in a string of Suruga ventures which analysts say sets the lender apart from its competition. ``This just isn't the speed of traditional banks,'' said Koya Hasegawa, an analyst at UBS Warburg LLC. ``Management's moving continually faster.'' Details on the new alliances are still being worked out, so sales goals aren't yet available, a bank spokesman said. Both alliances follow Suruga's venture with Softbank Corp., the country's top Internet investment company, to set up an online bank branch to lure customers across Japan with perks such as free automated teller machine withdrawals and interest rates twice those offered by other banks. The branch, set up in April, receives about 100 applications per day, more than Japanese online brokerages, Okano said. Suruga, based in Shizuoka Prefecture, south of Tokyo, has wowed investors by using database credit screening that's novel in Japan and by thoroughly explaining its business focus on retail customers. The lender's shares, up more than 200 percent since it began wooing investors last year, closed down 25 yen, or 1.35 percent, Tuesday at 1,825 yen. Speaking at an investor conference, Okano said the bank aims to sell an average of 10 financial products to the majority of its customers by March 2001. Suruga plans to have issued 500,000 credit cards in the period, up from 370,000 as of last month. The bank also plans to expand online accounts to 100,000 by 2002 and 300,000 in 2003. The bank has about 16,000 accounts now, slightly below the average for nationwide banks. ``We have to keep ahead of the competition with new products and channels,'' Okano said of the bank's plan to sell more kinds of financial products to individuals. ``There will come a day when we're no longer considered a bank.'' Loans to individuals should account for more than 50 percent of the bank's portfolio in the next year, up from 46 percent in March. That's more than the 28 percent for the next highest regional bank and at least triple the rate for major banks, Okano said. The loans, including high-margin mortgages sought by Japanese banks that are traditionally strapped with low-interest corporate loans, pushed the bank's deposit margin to 1.24 percent in March. To be sure, competition is likely to heat up as nationwide banks enter similar business. Suruga needs to follow a niche strategy to avoid competing head-on against bigger lenders or companies outside banking, analysts say. ``They have to do things that the big banks won't do or can't do,'' Hasegawa said. ``It comes down to ideas and how fast you implement them.''