Mizuho Financial Group Inc. is willing to team up with start-ups and other companies to bolster its "fintech" business and catch up with U.S. and European financial institutions that have taken the lead in the new services, President Yasuhiro Sato said in a recent interview with Kyodo News. Mizuho, one of the largest banking groups in Japan, is seeking cooperation with ventures in a variety of fields such as "robo-advisers," computers that give online portfolio management advice, as well as remittances and microfinance. "We need to launch (a new fintech business) soon or we will lag behind Europe and the United States. I hope to unveil something concrete in the first half of fiscal 2016," Sato said in the interview.

http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20160530/p2g/00m/0bu/014000c