Rakuten Bank
Following a notable period of growth for Japan’s largest bank by customers, Rakuten Bank wins the best bank for digital solutions award this year.
In April 2023, the bank was spun-off from parent Rakuten via an IPO, raising $625 million. The deal was the country’s largest IPO since 2018 and the culmination of a successful period in which the online lender accumulated more market share than any of its competitors by number of clients.
This year saw the bank’s number of accounts surpass 13.73 million, with deposit balances exceeding ¥9 trillion ($61.4 billion).
It recently became the first internet bank to offer reverse mortgages, for example. In a country with an aging society, releasing equity from owned properties is an important service but has traditionally only been provided through face-to-face sales with a limited number of regional banks.
The bank also became the only internet bank in the country to offer inbound payment services for tourists. This service supports overseas QR code payment systems – such as Alipay, WeChat Pay and Kakao Pay – that are routinely used in Asian countries.