Japan's First Mobile Bank Starts Operations

Tokyo, July 17 (Jiji Press)--Jibun Bank, Japan's first bank
specializing in offering banking services online through mobile phones, started operations on Thursday.

Jibun Bank, a fifty-fifty joint venture between Bank of
Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and major telecommunications carrier KDDI Corp. <9433>, features easy fund transfer services using mobile phone numbers.

The mobile bank the same day began accepting applications to open accounts online, and at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ's branches across the
nation and some of KDDI's "au" brand mobile phone shops in the greater Tokyo
areas and two other metropolitan areas around Osaka and Nagoya.

At an opening ceremony in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, Jibun Bank
President Masato Nakai said, "We would like our customers to use our easy
and various financial services at any time and any place."

The bank also plans to start offering automatic utility payment
services by the end of March 2009.