Activities in 2001

Banking Operations
During the term under review, the Bank conducted deposit, loan, domestic exchange, and foreign exchange operations within the Head Office and the 59 branches and nine sub-branches that it retained from the previous year. We were proactive in providing a stable supply of needed funds to individuals and small to medium-sized businesses within the prefecture, and as the central financial institution in Okinawa Prefecture, we contributed to the development of the prefectural economy and the stability of its financial system.

Deposits
The Bank provides an array of deposit products for the convenience of its customers, such as ordinary deposits, current deposits, savings deposits, time deposits, money trusts, special deposits, and non-resident yen deposits, in an effort to cover the entire range of customer needs for banking products and services.

Lending
To continue to fulfill our duty of contributing to the development of the region’s businesses, the Bank of the Ryukyus endeavors to answer the wide-ranging funding needs of local corporations and individual business owners. To this end, the Bank extends loans on bills and notes, provides overdraft facilities, and discounts bank acceptances, commercial bills, and commercial bills of exchange. Furthermore, based on its motto of being a “Helper in Realizing Dreams,” the region’s citizens, the Bank stands ready with a variety of loan products for housing, education, and other purposes.

International operations

Big Bang Zai, the Ryugin foreign currency time deposit, and Rise, a new type of foreign currency deposit, representing two of the best asset management products available in a low-interest rate environment, are steadily increasing in popularity.
In addition, the Bank has made overseas remittance and foreign currency delivery part of the Internet and mobile banking services it offers, allowing customers to send funds overseas and exchange currencies right from their home PCs and mobile phones.

Securities
The Bank endeavored to respond to the varied needs of its customers through sales and other dealing operations involving public bonds, including over-the-counter sales of national government bonds.

Investment trusts
Investment trusts are financial products whereby an investment trust company pools capital from a large number of customers to invest in various types of stocks and bonds (JGBs and corporate bonds as well as foreign bonds), and that operate on the basis of performance-based payouts (returns are not set, but vary based on fund performance). As such, these products are gaining popularity as effective measures for countering the recent lifting of unlimited guarantees on time deposits in Japan.

 From the more than 3,000 different types of investment trusts in Japan, we have carefully selected 20 trusts that we believe fulfill the broad asset management needs of our customers.

Trust operations
Since becoming a commercial bank in 1972, the Bank has engaged in money trust operations, unlike the majority of commercial banks. This involvement expanded substantially after 1993, when regional financial institutions were made eligible to engage in the trust business. As a result, the Bank started selling real estate trust, public welfare trust, specified donation trust, and pension trust services on an agency basis beginning in 1994. To make effective use of customers’ precious assets, the Bank adopted the expertise of investment trust banks to establish investment trust agency operations within seven of its branches.

Other services
The Bank is supporting its customers by improving the efficient usage of funds and simplifying banking procedures with the help of online connections between the Bank and customer computers, thus allowing the quick transmission of banking transaction data, including the transfer of remittance data and remittance executions, as well as collective remittances. To further enhance convenience for customers, the Bank has increased the number of its automated cash deposit machines and “super ATMS,” with deposit transfer services, and extended branch hours of operation on Saturdays and Sundays.

With the growing sophistication of information and communications technologies, it is becoming possible for customers to do their banking while they are in their homes or places of work. We offer variegated services to suit the volume and methods of customer transactions, including telephone banking, Internet banking, mobile banking, corporate banking.

Other Operations
Other focal operations, carried out primarily by the Bank’s six subsidiaries and one affiliated companies, are related to the credit card business, leasing, real estate, credit guarantees, and information processing.

The Ryugin Group companies are putting their energies into expanding their business bases and strengthening their earning power through increased operational efficiency, so as to provide high-quality, comprehensive financial services.