Fifteenth Bank
The Fifteenth National Bank, from 1897 the Fifteenth Bank (Japanese: 十五銀行, Jugo Ginko), was one of the early National Banks in Meiji Japan established in 1877 in Tokyo. Its failure in 1927 was a climactic point of the Shōwa financial crisis. It was subsequently reorganized by the Japanese government, and eventually absorbed in 1944 by the Teikoku Bank, itself a predecessor of SMBC Group.
Overview
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The 15th National Bank was established by a group of high-ranking nobility including Iwakura Tomomi, Tokugawa Yoshikatsu, Yamauchi Toyonori, Kuroda Nagatomo, Ikeda Akimasa, Tōdō Takakiyo, Matsudaira Mochiaki, Nanbu Toshiyuki, and Yoshikawa Tsunetake, and was therefore colloquially known as the "Kazoku Bank". Its first president was Mori Motonori. With an initial capital of 17.8 million yen,[1]: 34 it was by far the largest Japanese bank, with its capital representing 44.5 percent of the total capital of all national banks. Immediately after its creation, it provided funding to the Japanese government during the Satsuma Rebellion.[2]: 44
In 1920, the 15th Bank absorbed Naniwa Bank (est. 1878 in Osaka as the 32nd National Bank), Kobe Kawasaki Bank (est. 1903 in Kobe), and Choyou Bank (est. 1897 in Tokyo). The bank still carried considerable prestige in the 1920s until its abrupt failure. By early 1927, half of its large loans and 30 percent of its total lending were to businesses associated with the Matsukata family, which was also its controlling shareholder and whose patriarch Matsukata Masayoshi had died in 1924 at 89 years.[1]: 126 In total, 322 of its shareholders were members of the nobility, with the Ministry of the Imperial Household and the head of the treasury also holding large numbers of shares, and the Imperial Household Ministry's main treasury was held at the bank. The 15th Bank's president was Duke Matsukata Iwao, the eldest son of Matsukata Masayoshi.
On 21 April 1927, the 15th Bank announced a three-day suspension of its operations following a disorderly bank run. Many samurai and aristocratic families used the information networks of their former retainers to transfer their assets elsewhere before the bankruptcy, but even so, aristocratic families suffered great losses. The Imperial Household Ministry had designated the bank's shares as hereditary property, which made them hard to sell, compounding the crisis. Matsukata Iwao sold off most of his personal assets to support his failing bank and, on 29 November 1927, offered to surrender his title to the Imperial Household Ministry. Marquis Asano Nagayuki, a director of the bank, also offered personal assets for the bank's reorganization. In December 1927, the Japanese government announced a plan to reopen the bank in the following spring, with full repayment of deposits under 100 yen per account and only partial repayment above that threshold.[3]
The first Ginza Mitsui Building was erected in 1972 on the site of the 15th Bank's former head office in Tokyo.[citation needed]
See also
[edit]- Dai-Ichi Bank (the First National Bank)
- Eighteenth Bank
- The 77 Bank
References
[edit]- ^ a b Howard Kahm (2012), Colonial Finance: Daiichi Bank and the Bank of Chosen in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Korea, Japan, and Manchuria, University of California Los Angeles
- ^ Shigeki Miyajima & Warren E. Weber (February 2001), "A Comparison of National Banks in Japan and the United States between 1872 and 1885" (PDF), Monetary and Economic Studies, Tokyo: Bank of Japan
- ^ "To reopen Fifteenth Bank: Japanese Plan Reorganization of Institution Figuring in Crisis". The New York Times. 18 December 1927.