3. Addressing antitrust issues

In December 2005, SMBC received a recommendation issued by the Fair Trade Commission of Japan (JFTC), which concluded that the bank’s interest-rate swap sales to a number of corporate customers constituted “abuse of superior bargaining position.” In April 2006, the bank faced administrative orders from the Financial Services Agency for the same issue, including an order to suspend the handling of interest-rate derivative products.

In response to the JFTC’s recommendation, SMBC promptly started acting to recover public trust. The bank released a business improvement plan centered on setting up the Business Monitoring Committee and Customer Satisfaction (CS) and Quality Improvement Committee, and formulating and implementing the CCF Action Plan. CCF stands for “customer comes first” and “compliance comes first.” The plan was to run appropriate programs on a yearly basis in order to build and maintain a customer-oriented mindset and compliance awareness. Other measures included redeveloping performance assessment frameworks and operational planning procedures and establishing the Guidelines for Adequate Business Conduct.

Referring to this incident in the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Report 2006, published in November 2006, President Oku stated, “I am convinced that building up a customer-oriented mindset in our daily business is the best way to regain trust, and I hope that each employee remembers this in carrying out customer-oriented business activities,” and he pledged to endeavor to recover the trust, both internally and externally.