Sumitomo Trust

Sumitomo Trust Ltd was established in 1925 with a paid-in capital of twenty million Yen. The head office in Osaka was launched later the same year and the bank was licensed to engage in corporate and trust business. In 1949, the company was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and at the Osaka Securities Exchange. A year earlier, the trust launched its retail banking business and changed its name to Fuji Trust & Banking Co., Ltd. Since 1952, the company is operating under its current name, Sumitomo Trust&Banking Co Ltd. Mr. Hitoshi Tsunekage, President and CEO of the company, is leading a team of slightly over six thousand employees, working in a network of sixty-three offices in Japan and overseas. The company has thirty-seven subsidiaries (twenty-three in Japan and fourteen abroad) and eight affiliates, along with eighty-six trust agencies.

Sumitomo’s retail banking business is based on the following subsidiaries: Sumishin Card Company, Ltd, member of the Visa Japan Group and responsible for credit and debit cards issuance and management, cash and consumer loans, loan collections and credit guarantees; Sumishin Guaranty Company Ltd, part of the trust’s personal lending division, operates the company’s house lending business. The clients of Sumitomo Trust from the higher walk of life may rely on the services of STB Wealth Partners Co., Ltd, including inheritance and business succession consulting, wealth and asset management, and investment and tax consulting. The company’s internet banking services are represented by SBI Sumishin Net Bank, Ltd – an online operating bank, established as a joint venture of Sumitomo Trust and SBI Holdings, Inc.

The wholesale business of Sumitomo Trust&Banking is implemented through the following subsidiaries: STB Investment Corporation, providing capital investment services, business restructuring advisory, and incubation services for not-listed companies; First Credit Corporation, a wholly-owned real estate management company, providing real property management, investment and advisory to corporate clients; Japan TA Solution, Ltd provides data processing and management services to companies and corporations; Sumishin Matsushita Financial Services is a subsidiary of Sumitomo Trust&Banking, offering various financial services to small and medium sized enterprises such as project financing, manufacturing loans, leasing solutions for the purchase of equipment and raw materials, business accounts, credit cards, loans, and trust related services.

During fiscal year 2008, Sumitomo Trust and banking faced extremely harsh conditions in the wake of the global financial crisis and the widening recession. Still in its 2008 annual report, the company announced a net profit of nearly 237 million US dollars (1 U.S. dollar = 92.12 Japanese Yens), along with a net income of slightly under eight million dollars. At the same time, the corporation’s consolidated net income for 2008 fiscal year dropped by 74.3 billion yen to 7.9 billion yen, causing the group’s year-end dividends to shrink to 1.50 yen per share.

Commercial Banks Guide > Sumitomo Trust