Message from the President & Group CEO of Mizuho Financial Group

As President & CEO of Mizuho Financial Group, I would like to express my deep appreciation for your continued interest and support. I would also like to express my heartfelt sympathies for all of those who have contracted COVID-19 and the many people who have been impacted in various ways by the spread of the virus.

Beginning in February 2021, Mizuho Bank suffered a series of IT system failures in Japan. All of us at Mizuho sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and concern we have caused to our investors, customers, and the rest of society by allowing these system failures to repeatedly occur. We submitted a business improvement plan to the Financial Services Agency of Japan in January of this year and have been regularly reporting our progress on the plan since April. In order to ensure stable business operations, we will continue working to fully institute our measures for improvement throughout the organization.

COVID-19 variant outbreaks, the Russia-Ukraine situation, and other factors made FY2021 a year of escalating uncertainty in global affairs. Even so, due to growth in revenue at our customer divisions, we were able to surpass our fiscal year target, which we had revised upward following our interim results. We also increased our dividends for the first time in seven fiscal years.

Here I will share three points I have had in mind for the remainder of FY2022.

The first is to regain the trust of our investors and other stakeholders. This begins with us doing our utmost to ensure stable business operations so that all of our customers can use our services with peace of mind.

The second is to ascertain the actual conditions on the frontlines and invest in necessary areas. We will take the feedback from our frontline colleagues on board and gain a better understanding of the real situation at their offices. At the same time, we will invest in both personnel and IT systems in areas that require greater allocation of corporate resources.

The third is to see through the 5-Year Business Plan and lay the groundwork for the future beyond the current plan.

One of Mizuho’s strengths is our ability to combine functions from across the group to provide our customers with optimal solutions. This is steadily producing results. For example, the non-financial services offered by our research divisions have led to new financing opportunities for us. We will expand such initiatives, while also actively investing in growth business. In addition, we have been firmly advancing our digital transformation strategy through the partnership we recently announced with Google Cloud Japan, as well as through other ventures.

We appreciate your continued support and will make every effort to not only meet but exceed your expectations.

August 2022

Masahiro Kihara

Member of the Board of Directors
President & Group CEO
Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.

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