By SHINJI HAKOTANI/ Staff Writer
August 21, 2020 at 18:13 JST
A Mizuho Bank Ltd. signboard (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Mizuho Bank Ltd. customers who prefer an old-fashioned paper bankbook will have to dip into their savings if they want one starting in January.
Customers will have to shell out 1,100 yen ($10.42) including tax to get one, the company announced Aug. 21.
Mizuho is the first major Japanese bank to begin charging for them, a measure it says is aimed at reducing costs.
Also from January, Mizuho will let customers access their accounts online and encourage them to do so over using paper.
Customers 70 or older will be exempt from the new bankbook charge since fewer elderly people use smartphones or computers.
Current customers who want a new paper bankbook to replace the one they have filled up also won't be charged.
But customers who neglect to update their paper bankbook for more than one year will be automatically switched to online passbooks.
Mizuho Bank has about 24 million savings accounts of individuals and corporations and expects that about half of them will use online bankbooks.
The paper bankbooks currently cost 200 yen per account annually for a stamp tax in addition to the cost of the paper.
Mizuho and Japan's other major banks pour more than several billion yen annually into paying for those costs.
MUFG Bank Ltd. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. have already introduced an online bankbook service.
Though Mizuho Bank is the first of the pack to charge for paper bankbooks, its competitors may follow suit.
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