Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:MFG) Q2 2024 Results Earnings Conference Call November 16, 2024 1:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Orita Natsuki - Chief Investor Relationship Officer, General Manager of Investor Relationship Department
Masahiro Kihara - President and Group Chief Executive Officer
Takefumi Yonezawa - Group Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Takahiro Yano - J.P. Morgan Securities Japan Co., Ltd.
Makoto Kuroda - Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd.
Ken Matsuda - Daiwa Securities Co. Ltd.
Shinichiro Nakamura - BofA Securities Japan Co., Ltd.
Koichi Niwa - Citigroup Global Markets Japan Inc.
Shinichi Tamura - Okasan Securities Co., Ltd.

Orita Natsuki

We will now start the investor presentation for fiscal year 2024 first half for Mizuho Financial Group. Thank you very much for joining us in spite of your busy schedules today. I'll be serving as the moderator. My name is Orita of IR Group.

The English line is held in webinar format.

Before we begin, let me introduce the speakers for the presentation and Q&A. To your left, President and Group CEO, Mr. Kihara. Senior Executive Officer and Group CFO, Mr. Yonezawa.

Disclaimers before we begin. The presentation contains forward-looking statements based on current outlook of the future. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. Please be aware that actual results may materially differ.

Let me explain today's proceedings. Group CEO, Kihara, will give a presentation following the investor presentation for FY 2024 first half document for about 30 minutes. covering earnings and strategy. After which, Mr. Kihara will be joined by Group CFO Mr. Yonezawa for Q&A for about one hour.

Masahiro Kihara

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us today. Allow me to start my presentation. The cover page, I think you are familiar with this. If you could please move on to page 3.

We have just completed the first half of the medium-term business plan. In terms of financials, the final target for FY 2025 was exceeded ahead of time.

And strategy. We said that we are focusing on sustainable growth, five areas, and we're making growth investment in five areas, Greenhill, Rakuten, and Golub Capital, and Rakuten Card that we announced the other day.

The environment surrounding us is difficult, so we need to strengthen our infrastructure and raise efficiencies. In terms of cost reduction, that is important. So products and services need to be reinvented. That is what we're continuing. And systems failures, we have learned lessons we should never forget. And so, we're ensuring operational stability. We need to raise motivation of our employees. We have shifted to new HR framework, CANADE. We have completed the transition. And we're starting to fine-tune the system.