New Productions and Services

Makiminato Mortgage Loan Center opens (Aug. 2001)  

To make our services more accessible to customers, in August we opened the Makiminato Mortgage Loan Center. With the opening of its third Center (including the centers in Naha and Okinawa City), Ryugin has the most such financing and mortgage loan specialty centers of any financial institution in the region.

Business Express Hurry! lending limit extended (Sept. 2001)  

Although Business Express Hurry! has been well-received since its launch in September 2000, in response to increasing customer demand, we have raised the lending limit on this product from ¥5 million to ¥10 million.

PC-based service B to Bank for entrepreneurs launched (Oct. 2001)

In October 2001, Ryugin successfully launched B to Bank, a service that allows corporations and business owners to check deposit and account balances and make various bank transfers (including payroll) from their own business computers. B to Bank requires no special modem or dedicated terminals, runs easily on Microsoft Windows®, and is compatible with most commercially available financial management software, making it a useful tool for improving overall accounting efficiency. Transfer fees for B to Bank are also substantially lower than those at regular bank branches, making it possible for businesses using this service to lower banking-related expenditures even further.

Analyst meeting held (Nov. 2001)  

From November 2001, the Bank has sponsored analyst meetings open to shareholders and customers in the Okinawa region. As an important part of Ryugin’s investor relations (IR) activities, the purpose of these meetings is to foster an accurate understanding of the conditions surrounding the Bank’s performance and businesses. The Bank has held seven meetings so far alongside the announcement of interim financial results (the last in November 2001) and seven more following the release of full-term financial data (the last in May this year), attracting over 2,200 participants.

Start of Win a Vacation Regular Time Deposit service (Jan. 2002)

Tourism, one the region’s most vital industries, was hard hit by the aftereffects of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. To show our support, we purchased ¥5 million in discount coupons good for overnight stays at hotels (including traditional Japanese inns) from Okinawa’s hotel industry association and began offering customers a chance to win these tickets through Ryugin’s Win a Vacation Regular Time Deposit service from January 2002. This product--in which the Bank invests an amount equal to what its customers earned in interest on deposits into the region’s tourism support industries--is part of the Bank’s “Okinawa is Alright!” campaign, and is Ryugin’s way of contributing to the recovery of this important industry.

All in One Loan service starts (Mar. 2002)

In March 2002, we began offering a new consumer-oriented product called the All in One Loan, a product that allows customers to consolidate credit and personal finance debt into a single, manageable loan. Many customers using this loan, with a ¥3 million cap and payable over a maximum of seven years, have found their monthly loan payments substantially reduced, not to mention being free of the headache of managing several different bills every month.

Wide-scale mortgage loan reform (Jun. 2002)

To make the use of mortgage loans available to more customers than ever, we overhauled the mortgage loans offered by the Bank in June 2002 to allow borrowers the choice between fixed or fluctuated interest rates. Three other important changes made to these loans are: (1) extendable borrowing periods, (2) the husband and wife of a household can apply for the loan as joint debtors, and (3) the offering of group life insurance with a special cancer clause. These important changes not only make repayment easier by aligning it more closely with the life stages of our customers, but have also made the borrowing of a larger sum than ever easier for married couples, thanks to improved creditworthiness.

Executive officer system adopted (Jun. 2002)

To respond more quickly to today’s rapidly changing financial environment, while at the same time enhancing competitiveness and improving overall efficiency, Ryugin decided to adopt an executive officer system. This new system draws a clearer distinction between the roles of directors (charged with making higher management decisions) and executive officers (non-board members who carry out Board directives and all other administrative duties). Dividing decision-making and administrative functions in this way not only gives executive officers more flexibility in completing their administrative tasks, but also allows directors to better focus on upper management decision-making and overall administrative supervision. From these changes, we expect the Bank to soon achieve a more comprehensive level of corporate governance.

“In-Branch Stores” incorporated at business branches (Jun. 2002)

In June 2002, following the reopening of its Matsuo branch, Ryugin become the first financial institution in the Okinawa region to have an “in-branch store” operating on the premises of one of its offices, in this case the first floor of the Matsuo branch building. The term “in-branch store” refers to cafés and small-scale retail shops that become, in essence, tenants of a given branch building. Such stores then set up business in part of the building to make effective use of the ability of the Bank and the shop itself to draw in new and repeat customers, to the mutual benefit of both businesses. The Matsuo branch also has an ATM corner on the first floor lobby, facing a busy, cosmopolitan street in downtown Naha—-an ideal location for drawing in additional customers. The in-branch store (in this case, a popular coffee shop) is located on the same floor as the ATM corner, with the Bank branch itself located on the 2nd floor.