The chief executive of Japan's largest bank expects new business opportunities to appear as digital currencies allow collection of data on how people use their money. While Japan's big banks have distanced themselves from bitcoin and other existing digital currencies, they are trying to create their own to provide cheaper and easier means of payments and money transfers.
"We would be able to capture kinds of financial behaviour that cannot be collected as data in cash transactions," said Nobuyuki Hirano, CEO of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) , speaking as chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association at a news conference on Thursday. "We can use the data to create new value."