RetireJapan

SBI seems to be making a move for Shinsei. This could get interesting to watch (especially as a Shinsei customer myself).

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Busine ... nder-offer

One hopes they might improve customer service/products.

We'll see!

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 7:54 am One hopes they might improve customer service/products.

You beat me to it! I gave up on them years ago, though my wife still uses her account to fund her iDeCo.

edit: This article in the FT gives a bit more detail https://www.ft.com/content/1a863d9d-b08 ... cd828aab75

More likely they'll just completely give up on English support

mighty58 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 7:51 am SBI seems to be making a move for Shinsei. This could get interesting to watch (especially as a Shinsei customer myself).

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Busine ... nder-offer

Honestly, with the interest rates where they are, and the client base that Shinsei has, I have to imagine they are selling at a discount to exit this market. They've been scaling back for years (English support I hear you say), so not entirely surprising.

Might be forced to do a google and pull up their company accounts to see what their balance sheet looks like

adamu wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 12:17 pm More likely they'll just completely give up on English support

Yes! I was thinking the same. They're also going to take Shinsei's beautiful modern online banking site and turn it into a steaming pile of clunky 90s Netscape friendly crap. But hey, at least maybe I'll finally be able to link my Shinsei bank account with my SBI account. I can dream, right?

JapaneseMike wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 1:12 pm

mighty58 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 7:51 am SBI seems to be making a move for Shinsei. This could get interesting to watch (especially as a Shinsei customer myself).

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Busine ... nder-offer

Honestly, with the interest rates where they are, and the client base that Shinsei has, I have to imagine they are selling at a discount to exit this market. They've been scaling back for years (English support I hear you say), so not entirely surprising.

Might be forced to do a google and pull up their company accounts to see what their balance sheet looks like

You can't trust a Japanese company's balance sheet any more than you can trust its P & L statement. See : Olympus.

Roger Van Zant wrote: ↑Sat Sep 11, 2021 4:58 am
You can't trust a Japanese company's balance sheet any more than you can trust its P & L statement. See : Olympus.

Bit of a general statement, isn't it? No financial scandals at British, companies, or US companies, ever...?

beanhead wrote: ↑Mon Sep 13, 2021 10:00 am

Roger Van Zant wrote: ↑Sat Sep 11, 2021 4:58 am
You can't trust a Japanese company's balance sheet any more than you can trust its P & L statement. See : Olympus.

Bit of a general statement, isn't it? No financial scandals at British, companies, or US companies, ever...?

Of course, yes, there have been. But after huge accounting scandals in the US/UK (cases like Enron, World Com etc.), swathing new laws and regulations were brought in. Also, many of those involved received tough prison sentences. Nobody involved in the Olympus fraud received prison sentences (only slap-on-the-wrist suspended sentences, or fines amounting to me being fined 10,000 yen).

I believe structural reform of the above type is basically impossible in Japan, regardless of how many new laws are introduced. You would need to overhaul the way Japanese are raised to a fundamental degree, which will never happen. The bottom line is, in 99.9% of cases, a junior person in Japan will never blow the whistle on, or raise issues about, fraud or any breaches of fiduciary responsibility carried out by someone senior to them.

If the previous Olympus president had not been a "gaijin", we would never know to this day about the fraud that occurred.

With that logic, why invest in the market at all? They might all be cooking the books like Olympus. Lets keep all our money under our mattresses.