Fuji Bank

a Japanese commercial bank. The Fuji Bank was founded in 1880 as the privately owned Yasuda Bank and received its present name in 1948. With the Marubeni Corporation, which is a commercial firm, and Nippon Kokan, which manufactures metal and ships, the bank forms the financial nucleus of the Fuji monopolistic group. Through its affiliates and subsidiaries, the bank is involved in such areas as the exploitation of the ocean, petroleum extraction, aviation, and information services. The bank was one of the first in Japan to institute a payment system based on the use of credit cards.

The Fuji Bank serves a wide range of customers that includes huge corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, and private individuals. The bank has 219 branches in Japan, and it maintains one affiliate, five branches, and six agencies abroad; the bank is involved in the operations of 12 banks and six financial institutions in such financial centers as London, New York, and Paris. The Fuji Bank maintains correspondent relations with nearly all the major world banks, including the Bank for Foreign Trade of the USSR and the banks of other socialist countries.

The Fuji Bank has a capital of 66 billion yen ($230 million). The total balance of the bank as of September 1976 was 10.549 trillion yen ($36.7 billion), with deposits of 7.199 trillion yen ($25 billion), loans of 5.895 trillion yen ($20.5 billion), acceptances and guarantees of 1.241 trillion yen ($4.3 billion), and securities of 1.289 trillion yen ($4.5 billion).

B. 1. SERGEEV