Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd. (President & CEO: Tatsufumi Sakai, hereinafter "Mizuho Securities"), a core group company of Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. (President & CEO: Yasuhiro Sato), has started procedures for applying for a license to establish a new company to engage in securities business in Frankfurt, Germany. The decision was made in the process of assessing the impact of Brexit—UK's withdrawal from the European Union (EU), and against the background of continuing the effort to develop our network for servicing customers in Europe and around the world in a sustainable and reliable manner.
Mizuho combines its strengths in both banking and securities operations in order to provide integrated solutions to meet complex needs of a variety of customers, including institutional investors, financial institutions and "Global 300" (non–Japanese companies selected internally for developing long–term relationships). In the sales and trading business, we are enhancing our derivatives platform and other infrastructure, which enables us to expand the product range and flexibly respond to technology–driven changes in the market structure. We employ our extensive industry knowledge and risk analysis to support both business and financial strategies of our customers. This business model is employed globally, including in the EU countries.
In order to promote the above business model going forward, we will proceed with the application for establishing a new subsidiary in Frankfurt that will lead securities operations in the EU countries. We will thereby establish a framework to maintain the quality of service for our EU customers around the world even after Brexit, which is expected in 2019.