MUFG Bank and affiliates may be subject to penalties for sharing customer information

Tokyo, June 7 (Jiji Press) — Japan’s Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission is considering recommending administrative penalties against MUFG Bank and two related securities firms over their handling of customer information, informed sources said Friday.

The securities watchdog believes that customer information was shared between MUFG Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. and Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co., all of which are under the umbrella of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., without clients’ consent, the sources said.

If the committee recommends that the Financial Services Agency impose administrative sanctions, the FSA will consider the matter.

The Financial Instruments and Exchanges Act prohibits banks and securities firms within the same financial group from sharing secret information about customers without obtaining their consent, a measure known as the Firewall Regulation.

In 2022, the committee recommended that the FSA take administrative action against SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., both part of the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. group, for violating firewall regulations. The FSA later imposed an administrative penalty.

On the alleged violation of firewall regulations at the Mitsubishi UFJ Group, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said at a news conference on Friday that he is confident the commission will handle the matter appropriately.

“I believe an announcement on the outcome (of the commission’s investigation) will be made in due course,” he said.