Resona Holdings, Inc. (株式会社りそなホールディングス Kabushiki-gaisha Risona Hōrudingusu) (TYO: 8308) is the holding company of Resona Group (りそなグループ Risona Gurūpu), the fourth-largest banking group in Japan.
The company was originally established on December 12, 2001 as Daiwa Bank Holdings, Inc., the result of the consolidation of Daiwa Bank, Kinki Osaka Bank, and Nara Bank. After acquiring Asahi Bank on March 1, 2002, the company was renamed Resona Holdings, Inc. on October 1, 2002.
The group has two head offices: one is located in Osaka, and the other in Tokyo.
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In early 2003 the Resona Group's capital adequacy ratio fell dangerously low. The bank had proposed to maintain its capital adequacy ratio above the legal limit by factoring in deferred tax assets. However, the value of these deferred assets could only be claimed if the company turned a profit in the future. Because of bank's profit outlook was so dim, Resona's auditor refused to certify the company's financial statement if the deferred tax assets were included. Without being able to count the deferred tax assets, the bank was effectively insolvent.
The Resona case threatened to cripple the entire country's financial system, since the other major banks were also counting on deferred tax assets to maintain their capital adequacy ratios. On May 17, 2003, the Japan government decided to inject 1.96 trillion yen in public funds into the Resona Group through Resona Bank[1]. This move, through the share exchange agreement between the bank and the holding company, effectively nationalized the bank, since the government emerged as the company's majority shareholder, holding 68.25% of voting rights of the holding company[2], while the holdings of existing shareholders was greatly diluted. The existing management was sacked and a new management was installed.
The bank's new management immediately set about to reduce Resona's non-performing loans (NPLs). In 2004, the company managed to turn a profit of ￥386 billion. As a result, Resona's management announced a plan to, over the next 10 years, return to the government ￥868 billion of the ￥3 trillion in public funds it has received.
In 1995, one of Daiwa Bank's bond traders, Toshihide Iguchi, in New York lost $1.1 billion speculating in the bond market. The company was later indicted for not reporting crimes by Iguchi including the unauthorized sale of clients' securities to cover losses.