Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc.

Japan's top financial regulators are pushing for the creation of a blockchain-based settlement infrastructure for stocks and government bonds. The Financial Services Agency (FSA), the Ministry of Finance, and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will collaborate with local financial institutions starting this summer to develop a plan, which is expected to be completed by early 2027 and could be fully operational in the early 2030s. The main goal is to accelerate settlement from two days to real-time by tokenizing the current account deposits that banks hold at the BOJ on a blockchain. On the same day, about 40 regional and online banks announced a proof-of-concept project for interbank transfers using tokenized deposits, which will begin within this month. This move builds on the July amendment to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), which classified about 105 cryptocurrencies as financial instruments and set an effective tax rate of approximately 20% on crypto, as well as the establishment of a dedicated crypto and stablecoin division at the FSA and a pilot project by three major banks: Mizuho Bank, MUFG, and SMBC.

SoftBank Group filed an amended shelf registration statement with the Kanto Finance Bureau on the 24th for a corporate bond issuance of around 1 trillion yen. The bonds will have a maturity date of September 16, 2033, making them seven-year notes, with an indicative coupon range of 4.3 to 4.9 percent per annum to be set on September 4. The subscription period runs from September 7 to 16, with payment due on September 17. Eleven firms, including Nomura Securities, Daiwa Securities, and SMBC Nikko Securities, are underwriting the offering.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is newly introducing a shareholder benefit program this year with September 30, 2026 as the initial record date, and the final cum-rights date is approaching on September 28. The benefit is designed to require an Olive account contract to receive V Points, and was rolled out alongside the two-for-one stock split and a 23 yen dividend increase announced in May. In the most recent first quarter results for the fiscal year ending March 2027, net profit rose 33.0 percent year on year to 501.372 billion yen, and the company plans a full-year figure of 1.7 trillion yen, approaching a record high. To receive V Points worth 30,000 yen under the initial benefit, continuous holding since September 30, 2021 is required, while holding since September 30, 2025 is required for the 5,000 yen equivalent.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group will introduce a new shareholder benefit program starting at the end of September 2026, while Park24 has resumed its shareholder perks for the first time in six years. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group will give 5,000 V Points to shareholders holding at least 100 shares for one year or more, bringing the total yield to 3.33% when combined with the planned dividend of 180 yen per share for the fiscal year ending March 2027. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines will offer ferry discount vouchers to shareholders of record at the end of September, with the total yield reaching 3.71% including dividends. Park24 will resume benefits for its Times Car car-sharing service from the fiscal year ending October 2026, with the total yield for holders of 100 shares coming to 4.57%.

Mitsuhiro Furusawa, a former Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs and now chairman of the Institute for International Monetary Affairs at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, mentioned the possibility that Japan and the United States could again move to coordinated intervention to correct the historic weakness of the yen. He also said that accelerating the pace of Bank of Japan rate hikes is an option. Regarding the Japan-US coordinated intervention at the end of July, he expressed the view that the United States is wary of the impact on its own interest rates and on US Treasuries, and offered his personal view that Washington wants to avoid rising rates and market turmoil before the midterm elections. On future exchange-rate policy, he said Japan could intervene at any time without limiting itself to levels such as 160 yen or 162 yen per dollar, and that responding with coordinated intervention is fully possible. On Bank of Japan monetary policy, he supported a rate hike in September and noted that even if the policy rate reached 1.25 percent, it would be only slightly above the lower bound of the neutral rate. He indicated that if the economy does not stall, another hike could come into view in December or January, or across the fiscal year, and that ultimately he would like to see the policy rate raised to around 1.50 percent to 1.75 percent.

SoftBank Group Corp. arranged a $10 billion margin loan backed by its ownership in OpenAI. The Japanese technology conglomerate signed the agreement Wednesday with Goldman Sachs Bank USA, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Apollo Global Funding LLC and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., according to its financial report. The two-year facility will be drawn down this month and used for general corporate purposes across the group and its Vision Fund II-2. The loan includes provisions requiring cash or early repayment if the value of OpenAI's preferred shares declines substantially. This financing follows a $40 billion bridge loan for OpenAI investments that added 21 new lenders during syndication last month, with SoftBank's total planned investment in OpenAI expected to reach approximately $65 billion by October.

The combined net profit of five major Japanese banking groups in the April–June 2026 quarter rose 42.3% year-on-year to 1.9564 trillion yen. The Bank of Japan's rate hikes improved lending margins, while rising stock prices boosted fee income from investment trust sales and other sources. By bank, net profit rose 48.2% at Mitsubishi UFJ, 33.0% at Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, 45.5% at Mizuho Financial Group, 56.6% at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group, and 14.2% at Resona Holdings. All except Resona posted record April–June profits. For the full year ending March 2027, Mizuho and Resona raised their forecasts following the additional rate hike in June, while the other three banks kept theirs unchanged.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group reported consolidated net profit for the April–June quarter of 2026, up 33% year-on-year to 501.3 billion yen. The full-year net profit forecast was kept unchanged at 1.7 trillion yen. The average full-year consolidated net profit estimate among 12 analysts polled by IBES was 1.795 trillion yen.

Real estate asset manager Kenedix is teaming up with Progmat and Datachain to build an infrastructure that allows investors to buy and sell security tokens without going through a securities firm, the Nikkei reported. In a proof-of-concept by the three companies, the issuer and investor directly exchanged security tokens and made payments, achieving instant settlement by simultaneously transferring the securities and funds using stablecoins. Currently, delivery typically occurs two business days after a trade is executed, but the new infrastructure shortens the time funds and securities are tied up, improving capital efficiency for investors. The proof-of-concept used a trust-type stablecoin standard envisioned by Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group for fund settlement, and the plan for commercialization includes support for yen-denominated JPYC and JPYSC, as well as US dollar-denominated USDC, though details such as the launch date and eligible security tokens have not been disclosed. If the infrastructure is put into practical use, it would also enable institutional investors to borrow stablecoins against their security token holdings and use them for other transactions.

Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mizuho Bank, Resona Bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank began offering preferential interest rates on housing loans, renovation loans, and unsecured loans for victims of the earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture on the 29th. Rates will be reduced upon submission of a disaster victim certificate, and affected businesses will also receive low-interest financing. The Kyushu Local Finance Bureau and the Bank of Japan's Kumamoto Branch have requested that financial institutions allow withdrawals based on identity verification even if passbooks or seals have been lost, and each bank plans to respond flexibly. The Life Insurance Association of Japan and the General Insurance Association of Japan announced that premium payment grace periods will be extended by up to six months, and insurance claim procedures will be simplified.

Japan's 40-year government bond yield rose 10 basis points to 4.01% as investors doubt the Bank of Japan will tighten policy fast enough to curb inflation. The five-year yield climbed to its highest since its debut in 2000, tracking moves in US Treasuries amid higher oil prices that boosted Federal Reserve rate-hike bets. BOJ officials are open to raising rates faster than the consensus among economists, with half of those surveyed by Bloomberg still expecting a December hike. Ataru Okumura, chief rates strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities, said the market is focusing on the BOJ's slow response to rising oil prices, prompting investors to demand a higher premium to hold longer bonds amid elevated inflation risks, and that yields will likely keep rising as fiscal expansion concerns intensify ahead of the government's sales tax cut proposal finalization in early August.

Pure Data Centres Group has secured €1.3 billion in committed senior debt for Phase 1 of its Seinäjoki AI campus in Finland, bringing total financing raised over the past 12 months to more than $4.2 billion. The senior project financing was provided by five mandated lead arrangers—SMBC, ABN AMRO, Citi, Societe Generale, and Natixis CIB—with three of those lenders joining the group during the six-week execution process. Phase 1 of the campus involves a €1.5 billion investment for a 110-megawatt AI facility that is already fully leased, while the full site is capable of scaling to a more than €7.5 billion, 550-megawatt-plus campus. The latest round follows a $2.7 billion financing package announced in May, which included a $2.15 billion facility backed by Pure DC’s Dublin and Amsterdam campuses and an increase in corporate-level financing to $550 million.

Nvidia is widening its reach across Japan's largest industries. During a visit to Tokyo, CEO Jensen Huang announced partnerships covering robotics, health care, banking, manufacturing, automobiles, quantum computing and gaming. Japanese companies including FANUC, Sony, Hitachi, Kubota and SoftBank plan to work with Nvidia on physical AI models for robots and industrial systems. In health care, several drugmakers are using Nvidia's BioNeMo platform for drug discovery, while Canon and Fujifilm introduced medical imaging systems built with Nvidia technology. Toyota is expanding its work with Nvidia on driver-assistance software, factory simulations and traffic systems, Mizuho and Sumitomo Mitsui are building AI infrastructure for banking, and RIKEN is preparing Blackwell-powered supercomputers for scientific and quantum research.

Canal Road Group has secured an equity commitment from SMBC that will unlock up to $225 million in additional investable capital for its direct lending strategy. The commitment increases CRG's total investment capacity to $2.3 billion, inclusive of financing, and gives SMBC a passive minority stake in the firm. It builds on an existing relationship that includes a $350 million asset-based lending facility, expandable to $500 million, which CRG uses to finance its private credit portfolio. Since launching its private credit platform less than two years ago, CRG has deployed nearly $1.2 billion of commitments to corporate credit borrowers. The firm is led by Mike Damaso and Don Young, who previously grew CBAM Partners to more than $15 billion in assets under management before selling it to Carlyle in 2022.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang unveiled a broad slate of AI products, partnerships, and customer deployments at the company's Japan AI event in Tokyo on July 15. The announcements spanned physical AI, healthcare, financial services, quantum computing, automotive, manufacturing, and gaming, highlighting Nvidia's push to position its technologies at the forefront of Japan's next-generation AI infrastructure. In physical AI and robotics, Nvidia launched Cosmos 3 Edge for on-device vision reasoning, and companies including FANUC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kubota, NEC, SoftBank, Sony Group, and Yaskawa Electric plan to join the Nvidia Cosmos Coalition to develop open physical AI models. In healthcare, Astellas Pharma, Eisai, Daiichi Sankyo, Ono Pharmaceutical, and Takeda Pharmaceutical are deploying Nvidia BioNeMo for AI-powered drug discovery, while Canon and Fujifilm introduced Nvidia-powered next-generation CT systems, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries is advancing AI-enabled surgical and hospital robots. In financial services, Mizuho Financial plans Japan's largest on-premises AI factory for banking, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial has deployed an AI factory through Japan Research Institute, and Rakuten Bank is developing AI transaction foundation models using Nvidia Agent Toolkit. Huang emphasized that the next wave of AI will be physical AI—robots, factories, vehicles, and industrial systems that can perceive, reason, and act in the real world—and said Japan's leadership in robotics, manufacturing, and precision engineering positions it to play a leading role in this transition.

Seven & i Holdings is considering selling a sizable stake to SoftBank and PayPay, a move that could end its standalone strategy and bring new technology, payments and customer reach into the business. The retailer may issue several hundred billion yen in new shares, according to Bloomberg. SoftBank, PayPay and Sumitomo Mitsui are reportedly aiming to reach an agreement this summer, although talks remain fluid and could still fall apart. The partnership could connect Seven & i with PayPay rewards and SoftBank's mobile customer base, potentially lifting store visits and spending, while also supporting automation, AI-driven logistics and lower operating costs. However, new shares would dilute earnings per share and return on equity unless the partnership generates enough growth to offset the impact.

Bloomberg has reported that SoftBank, the major mobile carrier under SoftBank Group, and payment service PayPay have entered talks to invest hundreds of billions of yen in Seven & i Holdings, the major convenience store operator. There is also a proposal for Sumitomo Mitsui Card, under Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, to invest. SoftBank and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group declined to comment, while Seven & i stated, "There is nothing we can explain at this time, and we refrain from commenting."

SMBC Group has promoted 50 colleagues to Managing Director across its international operations in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific. The promotions reflect the firm's continued investment in leadership and global growth across corporate and investment banking and sales and trading. The 2026 international Managing Director class spans a range of roles aligned with SMBC's long-term strategy, with a focus on delivering for clients, strengthening execution, and advancing technology capabilities. The rigorous evaluation process recognizes individuals for consistent performance, leadership, and contributions to SMBC's strategic priorities.