Line To Enter Banking Business With Mizuho

November 27, 2018 – Messaging app provider Line Corp. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. said today they will jointly set up an internet bank in 2020.

Through the tie-up, Mizuho is hoping to reach a broader customer base by offering financial services including loans, investment services and insurance products through smartphones, while Line, which boasts 78 million users in Japan, aims to build a new revenue source.

The two companies will initially set up a preparatory firm to be capitalized at 2 billion yen ($17 million), with Line holding a 51 percent stake and Mizuho taking up the remaining 49 percent.

Line CEO Takeshi Idezawa told a press conference, “We want to provide services closely related to people’s daily lives,” while Mizuho Deputy President Toshitsugu Okabe said, “Our purpose is to build a customer base of relatively young generations which major banks typically have had difficulties reaching.”