While Japan's big banks have distanced themselves from bitcoin
and other existing digital currencies, they are trying to create
their own to provide cheaper and easier means of payments and
money transfers.
"We would be able to capture kinds of financial behavior that
cannot be collected as data in cash transactions," said Nobuyuki
Hirano, CEO of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), speaking
as chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association at a news
conference on Thursday.
"We can use the data to create new value."
Hirano's bank is developing its own "MUFG Coin" digital currency
using the blockchain technology behind bitcoin.
The bank has been conducting experiments with MUFG Coin among
its employees, including using the currency to split restaurant
bills with each other over their smartphones.
Unlike bitcoin and other so-called cryptocurrencies, MUFG Coin
is tied to Japanese yen, so users can exchange it for yen at the
same rate as they bought the digital currency.
MUFG has said it plans to expand the experiment to involve all
of its 30,000 domestic employees next year.
Japan's third-largest lender Mizuho Financial Group is also
developing its own digital currency, J Coin, targeting
widespread use by 2020.
(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by David Goodman)
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