Nichiei: The Leader in the Financing of Japanese Small Businesses

摘要

There is one smaller Japanese financial institution that is attracting the attention of overseas investors, amidst all the news about the difficulties of the major banks and their mountains of bad debts. It is the leading company in lending to small businesses: Nichiei. Nichiei is listed on the First Section of the Tokyo and Osaka Stock Exchanges. In the year to March 1998, ROE was 16.9% and it is in the top rank of Japanese listed companies. The year was also the fifteenth continuous year of increased revenues and profits—in itself an unusual achievement. Behind all this lies the niche expertise of Nichiei in the provision of funding to medium and small businesses.