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In April 2026, we celebrated the 25th anniversary since our founding in 2001. “Wouldn’t it be great if there were ATMs in convenience stores?” — Starting from this simple desire held by customers, the Bank, since the time when it was known as IY Bank, has, over the past quarter-century, been able to establish convenience store ATMs as a vital part of social infrastructure thanks to the support of various stakeholders, including customers, shareholders, partners, and the stores that have installed our ATMs. I would like to express my deepest gratitude for this.

Looking back, the most memorable moments were the days when we were ardently striving to achieve our goal of becoming profitable within three years of our foundation. With our survival at stake if we couldn’t achieve this goal, what kept us going were the teachings of the late Toshifumi Suzuki (Honorary Advisor of Seven & i Holdings), who gave us tremendous guidance at the time of our founding. His teachings included: “Think from a retail perspective, not a banking perspective,” “discard conventional wisdom,” and “put yourself in the customer’s shoes.” With these words in mind, we put all our efforts into developing partnerships, developing systems, and restructuring operations. As a result, with the support of many customers, we were able to successfully achieve profitability. These teachings remain at the foundation of the Bank, which continues to this day, and serve as an unchanging part of our DNA.

In 2007, in addition to completing the installation of ATMs in all 47 prefectures, we also took on the challenge of developing higher value-added services that could not be found in conventional ATMs, such as support for cards issued overseas, voice guidance for visually impaired customers, and cash top-ups for electronic money. The foundation for the Bank’s unique differentiation, which was created at that time, has culminated in our current “+Connect” service.

Through these repeated challenges, we have steadily increased the number of ATM transactions, even as cashless payments become more widespread. However, recognizing that a revenue structure that is heavily reliant on the ATM business would limit future growth, we outlined two growth strategy pillars in our previous Medium-Term Management Plan, which we have been implementing since FY2021. The first pillar was to evolve our ATM business from a cash platform to a service platform, and the other was to expand growth fields that come after ATMs and diversify our business portfolio.

The previous Medium-Term Management Plan ended in FY2025. Unfortunately, we did not meet our financial goals of consolidated ordinary income of 250.0 billion yen, consolidated ordinary profit of 45.0 billion yen, and ROE of 8% or more. However, we achieved a new record high with consolidated ordinary income of 220.0 billion yen and secured a reasonable level of revenue in multiple businesses, demonstrating our steady progress toward diversification.

Our core domestic ATM business performed better than expected in terms of both the number of ATMs and the number of transactions. In addition to cash top-ups for various payment services, the range of services offered, such as Individual Number Card procedures and the Smartphone ATM service, expanded, resulting in a record high of 1.122 billion ATM transactions in FY2025. The “+Connect” service, which launched in September 2023, has been adopted by 51 companies as of March 2026. The “+Connect” service’s “ATM Teller” service was awarded the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Award at the 5th Nihon Service Award in recognition of its contribution to the rationalization and digitalization of partners. Through these unique and refined services, we support the DX strategies of businesses that have introduced our ATMs, which in turn contributes to improving convenience for individual customers.

The retail business and overseas business, which strive for diversification, are taking longer than initially planned to increase revenue. In the retail business, while loan balances increased to nearly the planned level, account acquisition fell short of expectations due to intensified competition in a “world with interest rates.” The credit card business also failed to achieve the desired results amid competition among various payment methods. Although we face a fiercely competitive environment, we will hone the unique strengths of the Group and focus on acquiring accounts and loans from our target customer base. Furthermore, with the planned credit card renewal in the summer of 2026 as a turning point, we will move forward with the achievement of profitability as our top priority.

While the overseas business experienced delays due to the emergence of competitors in the United States, Indonesia, and the Philippines, revenue in the previously struggling United States improved, and with the addition of Malaysia, which we newly entered during the plan period, all four companies achieved profitability. With increasing market awareness, the realization of “retail x finance” services that leverage the ATM service infrastructure is also becoming a reality.

In conjunction with our financial results announcement in May 2026, we announced a new three-year outlook (FY2026-2028). Our goals for FY2028 are ordinary income of 280.0 billion yen, ordinary profit of 40.0 billion yen, and ROE of 8% or more.

Our top priority is to recover to a trend of increasing income and profits. We will focus on improving our top line, profit margins, and efficiency, and will implement various initiatives to achieve our financial goals as soon as possible.

Our core pillar of revenue, the ATM platform business, will expand awareness of the “+Connect” service and build a customer base not only among financial institutions but also among administrative bodies and business corporations, enabling us to reach a wide range of potential users.

In the retail business, we will leverage our strengths to provide highly convenient services, aiming to acquire active accounts, increase loan balances, and achieve a net increase in credit card membership. Moreover, the highly specialized corporate services provided by our domestic group companies, Bank Business Factory and ACSiON, also make up part of the foundation that supports the safety and security of society.

Among our various key initiatives, the ones that I feel are particularly significant as stepping stones for the future are the “expansion of ATMs into FamilyMart stores” and the “evolution of the overseas business.”

Expanding into FamilyMart stores is not just about increasing our reach; it is also an opportunity for us to revamp our operational infrastructure. We see this as a time to shift from optimizing our own operations to optimizing the industry as a whole, and together with our business partners, we will explore new systems, including the restructuring of our cash delivery infrastructure.In addition, we are considering collaborations in various financial services areas.

The overseas business has entered an important phase, evolving into a unique entity while responding to the specific needs of each of the four countries. Efforts are already underway in each country for integration with digital wallets for the unbanked (people without bank accounts), the provision of account opening services utilizing identity verification infrastructure, and the utilization of data through collaboration with retailers. We will go beyond simply installing ATMs and work together to create unique services that respond to social changes in each country.

Across the entire Group, we will leverage our unique strengths to develop new services, acquire customers in new markets, and increase revenue, and in doing so, we will steadily shift toward a profit-generating structure.

While laying the groundwork for significant progress in the present, our gaze is also fixed on the future. Since the fall of 2025, we have been working internally on the formulation of a long-term vision for 2050.

The business environment surrounding the company is changing dramatically. This can be seen in the rapid evolution and widespread adoption of generative AI, the rise in cashless payment rates, the emergence of new solutions like stablecoins, and the arrival of a “world with interest rates.” At first glance, these changes may seem like a threat to the Bank.

However, we view change as an opportunity for evolution, and we aim to further enhance our service capabilities by adapting to said change. For example, while a rise in policy interest rates increases cash procurement costs, it also presents an opportunity to shift towards interest rate-sensitive services and recurring revenue businesses. Adapting to ever-evolving technologies also strengthens our service development capabilities. We will actively pursue not only external advancements but also internal business reforms.

Our strength lies in our ability to provide safe and secure financial services through the real-world touch point of ATMs. I am developing a plan that leverages this strength. Specifically, this involves using “FACE CASH,” a face recognition deposit and withdrawal service, not only for ATM transactions, but also in situations involving important decisions, such as buying a house or a car. Recently, due to the increasing sophistication of deepfakes and cybercrimes caused by the advancement of generative AI, safety expectations in the financial industry have risen dramatically. Leveraging our unique and highly secure real-world touch points, I would like to take on the challenge of creating a new identity verification system that supports more safe and secure multi-factor authentication.

The financial services we strive to provide aim for the creation of a world where users can access necessary financial functions naturally, without even being aware that they are using banking transactions or card payments. To achieve this, we are newly entering the BaaS business and leveraging our ATM network, account and loan businesses, and Seven Card Service’s customer base to create a new financial experience as a unified Group.

It was once said that a company can only maintain prosperity for about 30 years. As change accelerates, that period will likely become even shorter going forward. That is why we consider fundamental self-transformation—the kind that will have people describing us as an organization that “used to be a bank”—as our most important theme going forward. Starting with ATMs, our real-world touch points, we will envision and realize a future co-created by a diverse range of stakeholders.

Our growth strategy is supported by none other than the strength of each and every employee. What we value most in our daily business decisions is our commitment to creating something that cannot be found in existing concepts, which is embodied in our Purpose: “We shape the future of everyday life by seeing your wishes and going beyond.”
Creating something new inevitably involves challenges, but the process of each person overcoming these challenges is what creates a cycle that simultaneously leads to business competitiveness and employee growth.

We have built our own unique generative AI environment within the company, with the goal of having 90% of employees use it on a daily basis. Even in administrative departments, which are considered the most difficult to digitize, adoption is steadily progressing.
Going forward, we will further utilize data and AI to restructure our business operations.

From an organizational perspective, the focus of engagement measures is shifting from “a comfortable work environment” to “job satisfaction.” In FY2025, we were awarded the “CSA Award”^＊1 based on a positive evaluation of the real-life experiences of our younger employees. Moreover, in the selection of “DX Stocks 2026,”^＊2 the efforts of a wide range of departments led to significant results. This employee growth is the very source that supports our corporate value.

Employee growth is directly linked to our contribution to society. Creating shared value (CSV) through our core business is a theme that we have been working on for a long time. Our aim is not merely to engage in temporary social contribution activities, but to contribute to solving social issues in a sustainable way by generating as much revenue as possible through our businesses and services. This is our approach to CSV.

Currently, we are placing particular emphasis on account services for foreign residents. In principle, our system allows people to open an account at an ATM 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, immediately after entering the country, and access debit services.
In addition, in July 2026, we launched a financial service for parents and children that helps them understand the meaning and use of money through managing allowances. We will continue to create social value one small step at a time.