TOKYO (TR) – At a press conference on Monday, the president of Mitsubishi UFJ Bank said that the company will seek to restore trust amid a scandal in which a former employee stole over 1 billion yen worth of funds from safe deposit boxes.
Mitsubishi UFJ Bank President Junichi Hanzawa said, “We have reaffirmed that trust and credibility are the foundation of our business, and we will work with the entire bank to restore the trust and credibility that has been lost, while also fulfilling our social responsibility,” reports Nippon News Network (Dec. 16).
In this scandal, a former female employee in her 40s stole assets worth over 1 billion yen from safe deposit boxes belonging to approximately 60 customers over a period of four and a half years at two branches in Tokyo.
The former employee was responsible for managing safe deposit boxes at the branches. She committed the fraud using spare keys belonging to customers at the branches. During the investigation into the matter, she said that she “misappropriated the stolen assets for investments, etc.”
Although a third party regularly inspected the spare keys at the branches, the fraud went unnoticed. As well, there was no system in place to regularly check security camera footage, revealing sloppy internal management.
Mitsubishi UFJ Bank plans to move spare keys to safe deposit boxes to be managed centrally at headquarters rather than at branches.
The bank has also begun providing compensation to customers whose losses have been confirmed. But at two branches there have been reports of further losses from people other than the approximately 60 likely to have been victims, for which the investigation is ongoing.
Regarding his own responsibility, President Hanzawa said, “When we have finalized measures to prevent a recurrence, I would like to finalize my own disciplinary action.”
