Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. $(MUFG)$ plans to put more effort into asset management services for individual customers across the corporate group, said Takuya Tanaka, head of the company's Commercial Banking and Wealth Management Business Group.

"The entire corporate group is set to invest resources in this field," said Tanaka during a recent interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.

The following is excerpted from the interview.

The Yomiuri Shimbun: How do you see the change in environment surrounding the finance industry?

Takuya Tanaka: For listed companies, how to enhance corporate value has become a key management issue. An increasing number of firms are carrying out management reforms from a medium- to long-term perspective, such as opting to delist their shares. It has become difficult for companies to achieve independent growth due to factors like population decline, prompting a trend toward enhancing competitiveness through alliances and mergers and acquisitions. As the graying of business owners continues, I believe the demand for services that help with business succession and asset transfers will rise further over the next decade.

Yomiuri: Which area do you want to reinforce?

Tanaka: We want to strengthen our asset management advisory service for individual customers. As inflation is becoming entrenched, we have entered an era in which preserving asset value through cash and deposits alone is difficult. It will become increasingly important to offer advice that supports the medium- to long-term asset building of customers, while being aligned with their risk tolerance and life plans. The entire corporate group is set to invest resources in this field.

Developing human resources is crucial for providing high-level advice on asset management. We need to continuously enhance the knowledge and proposal-making capabilities of employees in charge of customers. At our securities companies, we have established a system that uses data to visualize the skills and performance of sales staff and provides training to overcome their challenges. We will extend this approach to our banks and other firms to improve the quality of our advisors across the entire group.

Leveraging strength of AI, humans

Yomiuri: How is the development of AI influencing MUFG's operations?

Tanaka: AI can now generate proposal content based on customer conversation history, asset status and market conditions. It can even create draft proposals. This allows staff to redirect the time previously spent on drafting proposals toward engaging with customers and building trust, leading to higher-value services. As client net worth increases, asset-management challenges naturally increase in complexity. Ultimately, a human relationship built on trust remains indispensable. It is essential that AI and humans leverage their respective strengths.

Yomiuri: What role will the Commercial Banking and Wealth Management Business Group play in the MUFG's next medium-term business plan?

Tanaka: Our operations will play a leading role in driving MUFG's growth. We can also contribute to the growth of the entire Japanese economy by supporting companies with growth investments and business succession -- which helps enhance industry competitiveness -- as well as by helping individual clients build wealth through asset management.

Financial institutions also play a major role in boosting company competitiveness and maintaining yen's credibility. For our overseas operations, we plan to make investments in growing markets such as Asia, which we hope will drive sustainable growth for the entire group.

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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