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Mizuho Financial Group

The Mizuho Financial Group is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, offering a broad range of financial services including banking, securities, trust and asset management, credit card, private banking services, venture capital through its group companies. The group has approximately 49,000 staff working in over 800 offices inside and outside Japan, and total assets of over $1.5 trillion (as of March 2008).

The group was created in September 2000 through the establishment of a holding company of the firm's three predecessor banks, The Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank (DKB), The Fuji Bank (Fuji) and The Industrial Bank of Japan (IBJ). Under the umbrella of the holding company Mizuho Financial Group, the firm's principal group companies include Mizuho Corporate Bank, Mizuho Bank, Mizuho Securities and Mizuho Trust & Banking.

Mizuho Corporate Bank is a global wholesale bank that serves clients ranging from large companies listed on the first sections of domestic stock exchanges and their group companies to financial institutions, public sector entities and overseas corporations, including subsidiaries of Japanese companies. MHCB responds to the sophisticated financial needs of domestic and overseas clients by drawing on the group's financial functions and the strengths of its network of offices in approximately 30 countries to pursue a business model that promotes and combines commercial and investment banking capabilities. In the U.S., it leverages its financial holding company (FHC) status to provide comprehensive investment banking services.

Mizuho Bank

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Mizuho Bank primarily serves individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and middlemarket corporations, and local governments in Japan. Its 490 branches and offices in every prefecture in Japan hold accounts for some 25 million individual customers and provide finance for around 100,000 customers among SMEs and middle-market corporations.

Mizuho Securities

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Mizuho Securities is a global investment bank that underwrites and sells corporate bonds and equities, and provides M&A advisory services in the U.K., the U.S., Switzerland, and China (Hong Kong and Shanghai), as well as Japan.

Mizuho Trust Bank

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Mizuho Trust Bank is a trust bank with strengths in both the corporate and individual sectors. Drawing on its high-level consulting and product development capabilities, it offers trust services to group company customers.

Mizuho International (London)

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Mizuho International (MHI) is the London based securities and investment banking arm of Mizuho Securities. MHI is the product of a merger of the international securities subsidiaries of Dai-Ichi Kangyo, Fuji, and Industrial Bank of Japan in December 2000. MHI is located in the City of London. The firm provides the core European operations base for Mizuho Securities. MHI is a full-service securities house offering the following services: trading in debt and equity products, underwriting, sales of securities, custody services, and M&A advisory services. In the fixed income business, the firm offers primary and secondary services across vanilla and more complex credit and interest rate products. Activities include underwriting eurobonds, trading Japanese and European credits and government bonds, trading Japanese yen interest rate swaps and arranging structured medium-term notes. In the equity business, the firm trade mainly Japanese stocks and convertible bonds in the euromarket. In the investment banking business, the firm underwrite mainly euroyen convertible bonds, Alpine yen convertible bonds and stocks, and provide M&A advisory services.

MHI are distinguished by their large international workforce and stringent corporate governance policy that actively promotes management by locally hired national staff. Approximately 400 people including both national and expatriate staff are currently employed at MHI.

MHI Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives include local historical restoration projects as well as partnerships with the City of London Festival and the Royal Academy of Arts' Schools.

Business Areas

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Global Market
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  • Credit Research

The firm's global credit research team targets its resources at the major macro-economic and credit considerations of the day. As well as offering European-orientated research, the London-based desk co-ordinates with an international office network to provide clients with information ranging from corporate credit risk to the Japanese economy. In addition, substantial resources are allocated to proprietary activities and the evaluation and analysis of structured and derivative products.

  • Debt Markets

In the primary markets, Mizuho International structures and underwrites debt financings for institutional clients across the globe - with a particular emphasis on directing capital flows into and out of Japan. In the secondary markets, Mizuho International provides its broad and varied global client base with both Japanese and international securities products - ranging from highly liquid government bonds to the latest derivative structures. The Debt Markets business is client focused, and the aim is to ensure that the company's clients receive the liquidity, research and advice they require in our core markets.

  • Equity Capital Markets

In Equity Capital Markets, Mizuho International structures and markets various equity and equity-linked primary products and services directly and through the corporate finance and capital markets teams in Mizuho Securities in Tokyo, as well as the various corporate and investment banking units of the Mizuho Financial Group. Mizuho International is active in secondary share offerings, including block trades, as well as the arrangement and hosting of corporate information meetings; it also has an equity syndication function and is an integral part of the Mizuho Financial Group’s primary equity operations.

  • Equity Sales and Trading

Mizuho International offers a brokerage service in Japanese equities and related products and is a member of the London Stock Exchange, having links to the major Japanese exchanges through Mizuho Securities. The firm provides services for a range of fund management companies and institutional clients in the UK, Middle East and Continental Europe. Mizuho International trades Japanese equities and related products during European business hours in order to facilitate clients‘ business requirements. Research staff in Tokyo specialising in the Japanese equity markets provide full support.

  • Global Custody

Mizuho International Global Custody provides full custody services, currently supporting 150 clients with over $95 billion in assets invested in all major global markets. The firm's products include all transaction processing, record keeping and safekeeping services including corporate actions, income processing, tax reclaims. Additional services include Securities Lending and Cash Management. Uniquely, Global Custody is the only provider designed exclusively to meet the requirements of Japanese financial institutions. Significant growth has been achieved through the development of robust, proven systems combined with a dedicated Client Service team, who have an excellent local knowledge of clients and a comprehensive knowledge of the markets and instruments in which they invest. The firm has a broad sub-custodian network of 27 banks, supporting over 70 markets across the globe with a particular concentration in Europe.

Middle Office

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  • Finance

The Finance department is a support area which provides support to the business and fulfils internal and external reporting functions. This department is responsible for providing monthly management information on business performance to management and all areas of the bank and leads the annual budget process. They also fulfil external reporting to Japan and produce the annual published accounts. Our Regulatory team is responsible for reporting capital and liquidity both internally and to our external regulators.

  • Product and Risk Control

Product & Risk Control is an independent area operating between the traders, other support areas and management. This team is responsible for validating the daily revenues reported by the traders and for verifying that that the Bank’s trading positions are fairly valued in its balance sheet. This team's role is also to monitor and control risk exposures in trading positions by reporting and assessing such exposures each day.

  • Risk Management

Mizuho International Risk Management Group is responsible for identifying, analysing, measuring and clearly communicating all risks resulting from the trading activities of the firm to senior management. The group validates and develops appropriate methodologies for the valuation and risk measurement of products and also advises management on appropriate limit structures.

  • Securities Services

Mizuho International Securities Services Department includes all of the operational support functions for all of the banks’ businesses such as fixed income trading, client and proprietary trading, credit derivatives, special situations, Japanese and European equity trading and other new businesses being developed by the bank. Securities Services is functionally structured and supports businesses as appropriate in trade capture, reference data, cash management, securities and cash reconciliation, transaction processing, money transfer, income processing and tax reclaims. In addition to the day to day workflow the department supports all of the ongoing business projects around the bank as well as the new product development with the business lines in conjunction with other control unit’s and MHI Information Technology Department.

Support Services
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  • Facilities and Administration

The Facilities and Administration Department’s primary function is to ensure the smooth running of the building on a day to day basis. This covers contract management, maintenance programmes, ensuring compliance with all relevant legislation general building procedures, condition monitoring and appearance.

  • Human Resources

The Human Resources (HR) Department aims to provide a value-added service to Mizuho International by working with all levels of the business. The department strives to adopt HR best practice to support the business and does so by translating the Company strategy into specific HR requirements, solutions and projects. Throughout all HR activities the department works within the boundaries of the regulatory and employment legislative frameworks which apply to the employment relationship.

  • Information Systems

Over eighty staff work within the IS Department covering the three streams Development, Technical Services and Control. The development team focus on delivering new functionality and enhancements to applications and infrastructure in support of the business. Technical Services provide systems management, production deployment and service delivery support to the business and ISD development teams, and ISD Control provides central control and management for all Programme Office functions, including Programme Management, Change/Release Control and Information Security.

  • Internal Audit and Compliance

The overall objective of Internal Audit is to provide senior management and the Audit Committee with an independent assessment of the adequacy of controls over the business and activities of Mizuho International. Internal audit helps to identify actual and potential weaknesses, make recommendations and monitor their implementation. The Compliance function supports the Mizuho International’s business by enabling it to be conducted lawfully, in accordance with regulatory requirements and with integrity. Its main objective is to provide an active advisory and monitoring service in relation to the regulatory requirements, especially those of the FSA.

  • Legal

The Legal Department provides advisory, documentation and general execution services to all business areas of Mizuho International. Its primary objective is to minimise the degree of legal risk attaching to Mizuho International’s role in transactions. The Legal Department is comprised of lawyers qualified in a variety of jurisdictions, many of whom speak a number of different languages.

  • Operational Risk

The Operational Risk team are responsible for ensuring that the bank’s exposure to operational risk meets it’s appetite for risk taking. Working with every department within MHI, Operational Risk sets the policy framework, and ensures (and operates) the arrangements to identify, measure, manage and report operational risk exposures and losses. Operational Risk is also responsible for managing the MHI’s crisis management and business continuity arrangements, including the placing of insurance when this is the most appropriate solution.

Graduate Development Programme

[Edit] About 20 graduates (Mostly from Oxbridge, Russell Group universities) are hired every year in the UK, graduate salaries are at market rate, but salaries and bonuses will be higher than market rate after the one-year graduate development programme. Bonuses will be given for probationary period, although it is written in the contract that there will not be any.