Fudzivara Kodz (Koji Fujiwara)

Fudzivara Kodz (Koji Fujiwara)

Biography

2021: Dismissal after major malfunction of Mizuho Bank data center equipment

In mid-June 2021, the president of the Japanese bank Mizuho Bank, Koji Fujiwara, resigned, taking the blame for the major failure of the IT system of the data center in early 2021. Fujiwara was also joined by the IT director of the bank Satoshi Ishii, and the general director of the organization promised to reduce his salary.

According to reports, the reason was the major failures of the bank's IT systems. In March 2021, a failure caused by equipment problems in the data center affected foreign currency transfers made by corporate customers of the bank in Japan. Hundreds of transactions were delayed for several hours. Even earlier, more than 4,000 ATMs throughout the country were affected by problems, in which thousands of bank cards were stuck. At the same time, Mizuho spent at least $3.6 billion on overhaul of its IT systems in 2019.

According to Nikkei Asia, responsibility for system failures will fall on the shoulders of dozens of employees, including managers. An investigation of IT failures commissioned by the bank showed that Mizuho too often changed technical personnel, knowledge was not preserved, and managers did not show a positive attitude and initiative.

The atmosphere within the company caused the managers to take a defense position. They just do what they should do and try not to take risks by actively expressing their opinion, the report says. - As a result managers became initiative-free.

The growing importance of IT in banking means that non-technical managers will increasingly be held accountable for IT failures. A major IT failure can have serious harmful consequences for customers and expose companies to unnecessary financial risks.^[1]

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