A math expert who studied number theory at the University of Tokyo's graduate school, he made an impression earlier in his career by heading the bank's launch of bond options trading. Digitalization is key to streamlining operations, especially in domestic retail banking, he said. While MUFG and others saw a surge in branch traffic despite a stay-at-home plea by the government in April, Kamezawa said the bank is now seeing a jump in the use of online banking services. His two predecessors, Kanetsugu Mike and Nobuyuki Hirano, were known for their overseas backgrounds. Under them, MUFG spent about $15 billion to acquire PT Bank Danamon Indonesia and Thailand's Bank of Ayudhya, and to obtain stakes in Vietnam's Vietinbank and Security Bank Corp. of the Philippines. Asked whether the acquisition of commercial banks in the region was over, Kamezawa said: "I think so." "We have succeeded in making up for declining domestic profit through our push overseas," he said, adding that the priority now was to control steadily rising costs. MUFG's costs as a percentage of revenue remain high, standing at 70.2 percent for the year ended March, compared with 62.8 percent for rival Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. "We will recalibrate our global strategy, review growth areas and allocate resources accordingly," Kamezawa said. Since the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis, The Japan Times has been providing free access to crucial news on the impact of the novel coronavirus as well as practical information about how to cope with the pandemic. Please consider subscribing today so we can continue offering you up-to-date, in-depth news about Japan.

These are tough times for banks. As the Bank of Japan's prolonged ultra-easy money policy weighs on earnings, the emergence of technology like artificial intelligence is transforming the mechanics of financing and threatening to replace thousands of roles with automated systems. The nation's major banks have announced restructuring measures including downsizing to deal with the situation and are rushing to catch-up with digital innovations, but some critics say it could be too late in the game. Negative interest rates introduced by the Bank of Japan in 2016 have been sapping the earning power of banks' core operations. The combined net core business profits of Japan's five big banks -- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. (SMFG), Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Resona Holdings Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. -- fell 22.4 percent in April-December from a year earlier, to ¥1.571 trillion.

At MUFG, Mike said "robotics process automation" will handle half of branch operations by the end of the business year to March 2024, or 30 percent of the bank's total. By the time of full installation, the automation would have handled the equivalent of 9,500 employee's workload, he said.