Leading online banks identified as main bank by companies in Japan 2021

In October 2021, more than 934 companies in Japan identified Rakuten Bank as their main online bank. The Japan Net Bank, which was renamed PayPay Bank in April 2021, ranked second, with close to 750 businesses that perceived the bank as their main bank.

Leading direct banks in Japan

Direct banks offer online-only banking services without operating any physical branches. Rakuten Bank, which is part of the e-commerce group Rakuten Group, was one of the leading direct banks in Japan with more than 10 million bank accounts in 2021, followed by PayPay Bank and SBI Sumishin Net Bank with five and four million bank accounts respectively. Partly due to a shift towards digital banking services following the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), direct banks like PayPay Bank recorded a steep increase in the number of bank accounts and transactions conducted by customers in fiscal year 2020.

Customer demographics of direct banks

According to a survey, the share of men who conduct financial transactions online was, on average, higher than that of women. This trend is also reflected in the customer demographics of direct banks. Looking at the customers of the three direct banks mentioned above, men accounted for 60 to 70 percent of customers in all cases. Broken down by age group, customers aged between 40 to 49 years made up the largest proportion of customers.