Japan's Mizuho Bank says its president is stepping down and it will embark on a major IT consolidation programme following recent computer systems failures.
Mizuho's ATM network and online services were knocked out in March, leaving millions of customers unable to access their money in the wake of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
The problems were caused by a surge in donations made through Mizuho's ATMs following the disaster and the bank's systems then struggled over the next few days to cope with the backlog of unprocessed transactions.
It has now revealed plans of a management shake-up, with Mizuho Bank president Satoru Nishibori stepping down, to be replaced by Mizuho Financial Group president Takashi Tsukamoto, who in turn is being replaced by the head of Mizuho Corporate Bank, Yasuhiro Sato. Mizuho Bank IT chief Hagiwara Tadayuki is also leaving the company.
Mizuho was created in 2000 through the merger of Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan and has since run its retail and corporate units separately. This structure will now be overhauled, with the two businesses integrated on a unified IT platform within the next three years.
The bank is also expected to soon face a "business improvement order" from the Financial Services Agency over the failures.