Chairman of Mizuho Bank China stands witness to China’s financial opening up

Moving to Lujiazui

For Mizuho Bank and Toyoki, March 1997 was a memorable month. Toyoki’s eldest son was born, while in the same month the Industrial Bank of Japan moved its Shanghai branch from Hongqiao to Lujiazui on March 23; with the ribbon-cutting ceremony for its RMB business being held the next day.

“Representatives of the People’s Bank of China and the Pudong New Area government, People’s Daily, Jiefang Daily, Xinhua News Agency and other media were present at the ceremony. Those scenes still linger in my mind,” said Toyoki with excitement.

Behind this joy and excitement was the context of the Chinese government’s decision to develop Pudong and build Shanghai into a global financial center. As Pudong undertook the regional function with a focus on financial services, the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone, as the sole development zone in China with “finance” in its name, played an important role in China’s financial opening up.

Then in 1997, the Industrial Bank of Japan, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and five other foreign banks were approved by the People’s Bank of China to open RMB businesses in their Shanghai branches.

As a matter of fact, according to Toyoki, one of Mizuho Bank’s predecessors – Fuji Bank – set up a branch in Pudong as early as 1995, making it the first foreign bank to enter the Pudong New Area. The move was praised as “pioneering” by Zhao Qizheng, then director of the Pudong New Area Management Committee and vice mayor of Shanghai. Therefore, it can be said that Mizuho Bank initially settled in Pudong in 1995.

In 2007, Mizuho Bank was amongthe first batch of locally registered foreign banks and established its China headquarters in Lujiazui.

Issuance of Panda bonds

Starting in 1994, Toyoki went to China (including Hong Kong) six times, until he came to Shanghai for the third time in 2014.

During the 20 years in between, Mizuho Bank had made multiple "firsts.” It is one of the first locally registered foreign banks in China and one of the first qualified market makers against the Japanese yen in China’s foreign exchange market.

Then on December 22, 2017, Toyoki witnessed another “first”: Mizuho Bank obtained the approval of the People’s Bank of China to issue RMB-denominated bonds in China (widely known as Panda bonds).