General Electric plans to enter the Japanese retail banking industry, possibly as soon as next year, the daily Yomiuri Shimbun said on Saturday. The US manufacturer and financial house is considering a merger with, or investment in, a Japanese financial institution as one way of entering the market, the paper quoted Yoshiaki Fujimori, chairman of GE's Japan office, as saying in an interview on Friday.
GE, which already runs banks in Europe, would like to open a branch of one of those operations in Japan, but is considering other options because obtaining a banking licence from the Japanese government is likely to take some time, the Yomiuri said.
The group owns a consumer loan business in Japan after buying lender Lake Co in 1998 and has launched consumer financial products including home loans, the paper said.
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