Rakuten Bank
Rakuten Bank has a well-defined goal: to make the world a more convenient place by offering high-quality online financial services to clients. In Asiamoney’s latest awards period, it made great progress in meeting its objective, making it the pick for best digital bank in Japan for 2021.
It has gone from strength to strength: the number of accounts opened reached 9.45 million by September 2020, surpassed 10 million in January 2021, and had shot past 11 million by July.
These account holders are also transacting actively. The number of total settlements made in the 2020 financial year hit 537 million, driving profits 33.6% higher, year on year.
Rakuten Bank’s deposit balance also grew to over ¥6 trillion ($52 billion) by June 2021, the highest level among all Japanese online banks.
The numbers raise an important question: what is behind Rakuten Bank’s success?
Led by president Hiroyuki Nagai, Rakuten Bank showed its agility during the pandemic by quickly responding to changing customer behaviour. Whether it was rolling out more debit cards to move to a cashless society, or allowing customers to make QR code payments on the Rakuten Bank app, the firm understood the market and responded accordingly.
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