Japan’s Yamoto Life Insurance goes bust

by Gill Montia

Story link: Japan’s Yamoto Life Insurance goes bust

Japanese firm, Yamato Life Insurance, has gone bust and is filing with the country’s Financial Services Agency to ask for court protection.

The insurer, which is described as of medium size and is a household name in Japan, has debts of $2.7 billion dollars.

Turbulent markets and tumbling share prices in Tokyo on Friday meant that the value of Yamato’s securities holdings fell rapidly.

The company’s president, Takeo Nakazono, explained that events were beyond expectations.

Japan’s Finance Minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, has issued reassurances that the collapse is down to Yamato’s business strategy and does not reflect the financial health of the country’s insurance industry.

Yamato Life is the first casualty of the credit crisis in the Japanese financial sector, which has so far responded to the credit crisis by abandoning its normal conservatism and acquiring businesses from failed Western financial institutions.

The country’s leading broker, Nomura, is in the process of buying Lehman Brothers’ Asian and European investment businesses.

In related news, American International Group has this week announced that it is selling three of its Japanese life insurance units.

The group is undertaking a programme of worldwide disposals to repay its debt to the US Federal Reserve.

The businesses for sale are Alico Japan, AIG Edison Life Insurance Co and AIG Star Life Insurance Co.