Nanto Bank : （Ｓ）Stakeholder Voice②Fostering Human Resources with Varied Experiences (276kb)

S	Developing with Our Region
Cultivating a Healthy Corporate Culture with Participation of Diverse Human Resources

Stakeholder Voice

Fostering Human Resources with Varied Experiences

In its efforts to cultivate "unconventional human resources," the Bank is working to develop personnel with diverse experiences by appointing current branch manager-level employees to serve as executives of Group companies and transferring younger employees to regional companies and municipal governments. To clarify these efforts further, we spoke with Yoichi Funatsu, who participated in the full-scale opening of Nanto Mahoroba Securities and currently serves as director of the company.

Brief personal history

1995 Joined Nanto Bank South Branch

2010 Business Administration Department

2017 Corporate Planning Department

2018 Seconded to Nara Securities

2019 Seconded to Nanto Mahoroba Securities

Nanto Mahoroba Securities Co., Ltd.

Director Yoichi Funatsu

Experience gained through transfer from the Bank to a securities firm

(Opening of Nanto Mahoroba Securities)

I was transferred to Nara Securities, a regional securities company, in October 2018 at the time it became a subsidiary of Nanto Bank. I had never worked in the securities industry before, nor had I been deeply involved in the deposit asset business during my tenure at the Bank.

As a former banker, I had no understanding of the rules, systems, or structures of the securities industry. This made opening Mahoroba Securities something like building a company from scratch.

During the first six months of my secondment, I spent my days revamping the core securities system, but in March 2019, Nanto Mahoroba Securities ("Mahoroba Securities" hereinafter) was successfully opened as a member of the Nanto Bank Group.

Looking back, I believe the process of opening the new company successfully in cooperation with former Nara Securities employees and seconded employees from major securities companies was an invaluable experience I would not have had if I had remained in the banking industry.

(Appointment of a new president from outside the Group)

In July 2020, we welcomed a new president from outside the Nanto Bank Group, and I simultaneously assumed the important responsibilities as a director.

Since the new president had absolutely no connection with our Group, let alone to its homebase of Nara Prefecture, he felt free to implement measures calculated to promote Mahoroba Securities' business performance unrestricted by ties with ownership.

The process was a constant source of confusion to me personally, and I spent hours a day in discussions with the management team with the President's wishes in mind, while also attending frequent meetings and conducting detailed explanations to the team and staff.

When new issues arose under these circumstances, I inevitably slipped into the risk-based mindset I had acquired working in the Bank's Risk Management Department. In retrospect, I think I often chose "not to do" when given a choice as a result.

The President, on the other hand, views issues more deeply from various angles without preconceptions, and makes bold business decisions quickly. Watching this process closely in my position as a director, I am learning firsthand about management theory-building and strategizing.

Differences from banking business, feelings on being transferred to an affiliated company, knowledge and capabilities acquired from the transfer

(Differences from the banking business)

Although securities firms and banks are considered to be members of the same industry as "financial institutions," their completely different profit structures naturally generate different management perspectives.

A bank's profit structure is that of a stock business, whereas the profit structure of a securities company, especially of a small- to medium-sized securities company rooted in the community such as Mahoroba Securities, emphasizes accumulation of daily proceeds.

In this connection, their market is subject to extreme fluctuations in response to domestic and international conditions and trends, making annual, semi-annual, and even daily planning difficult.

I was surprised myself at how much proceeds fluctuate daily. I also learned firsthand that the perspective on compliance is much

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Strategies and

resources allocation

stricter than I had imagined as a banker.

(Feelings on being transferred to the new company)

Mahoroba Securities is an assortment of employees from the former Nara Securities, support members from major securities firms, mid-career hires, and people like myself on secondment from banks. All of us come from different backgrounds and consequently have differing ways of thinking.

We sometimes clash with each other vehemently, and I have often realized during our repeated discussions that my own way of thinking had become unconsciously entrenched.

It takes courage to act to reform existing rules and habits or to start something new.

As I was tossing about ideas with a diverse group of people, I began to free my mind and direct deeper thought to determining the essential factors in solving an issue and the best way to achieve them, instead of immediately thinking about the risks and reasons not to do something.

The transfer also gave me an opportunity to consider Nanto Bank more objectively. I reached the conclusion that the ability of the Nanto Bank Group to achieve sustainable growth will require flexible thinking, unbounded by precedent, in the changing environment that surrounds us today. At the same time, however, my reflections led to a realization that the rigid ideas I have accumulated myself over the years are unlikely to change right away.

I gained this awareness through the opportunity occasioned by my secondment to Mahoroba Securities, which forced me to accept new physical circumstances in the forms of a different culture and close interactions with a diverse assortment of colleagues. This has convinced me that providing secondment opportunities can be an effective means of creating new corporate value.

The excitement I felt at the beginning of my secondment was accompanied by sadness at the thought that I would no longer be a banker, but I now feel I would like to continue working here as long as I am allowed to do so.

How can you apply what you have learned when you return to the Bank?

I want to encourage more exchanges between the Bank and Mahoroba Securities so that more people can experience what other employees and I have experienced on secondment.

I expect to promote initiatives to enable others to experience the excitement of the securities business, acquire broader perspectives and higher levels of expertise, and participate in customers' asset formation through greater cooperation between the Bank and Mahoroba Securities.

I also want to take up the challenge of employing securities' functions to contribute to development of our region.

I believe that if exchanges of human resources increase and cooperation between the Bank and Mahoroba Securities deepens, we will be able to provide new services that are beneficial to our customers and the community in ways that no one could have imagined in the past.

Nanto Mahoroba Securities Co., Ltd.

Mahoroba Securities seeks to provide customers with new value by leveraging its expertise as a securities company cultivated over its long history and the Group's management base in the region, and by delivering high-quality services in cooperation with the Bank.

[Overview]

Company name	Nanto Mahoroba Securities Co., Ltd.
Representative	Yuji Matsuura, President and Representative Director
Headquarters	Nanto Bank Saidaiji Ekimae Building 3F, 2-1-56, Saidaiji Higashi-
address	machi, Nara City, Nara Prefecture
Capital	3 billion yen
Shareholder	Nanto Management Service 100%
composition
Establishment	November 25, 1944

[History]

November 1944 Mahoroba Securities' predecessor Nanto Securities established.

October 1965	Merger of Nara Securities, Nanto Securities, and Tamba City Securities companies
	to form Nara Securities
October 2018	Becomes a subsidiary of Nanto Bank.
November	Becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Nanto Bank.
March 2019	Name changed to Nanto Mahoroba Securities
	Begins sales activities in cooperation with Nanto Bank.

September 2019 Becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Nanto Management Service.* *Intermediary holding company

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