According to Bloomberg Business, Mizuho Financial Group CEO Masahiro Kihara is aggressively expanding the bank’s corporate and institutional business in Europe and Asia, diverging from Japanese peers. The plan is to replicate its successful US strategy, where gross profit more than doubled in five years to $5.2 billion for the year ended March, driven by investment banking. Mizuho will leverage its 2023 acquisition of Greenhill & Co., its 2025 purchase of renewable energy specialist Augusta & Co., and its recent deal for India’s Avendus Capital to secure M&A advisory business. In Japan, the bank is partnering with Rakuten and using AI, via its majority stake in Upsider Holdings, to target small businesses and retail banking. Kihara has promoted Suneel Bakhshi to deputy president to boost cross-regional collaboration and stated Mizuho has “no intention” to own overseas asset managers like its rivals do.
Mizuho’s Different Drummer
Here’s the thing about Japan’s mega-banks: they often move in a pack. But Mizuho’s CEO, Masahiro Kihara, is clearly marching to a different beat. While Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitomo Mitsui have spent billions on stakes in commercial lenders to chase Asia’s retail consumers, Mizuho is doubling down on a niche it knows well: cross-border corporate finance. It’s a fascinating strategic divergence. Basically, one group is betting on the mass-affluent consumer across Asia, and Mizuho is betting on the complex financial needs of corporations going global. And given that Mizuho’s Americas unit now covers 80-85% of investment banking products and saw profit skyrocket, you can see why they’re confident in this model.
The Boutique Acquisition Playbook
So how do you build a global corporate bank without buying a giant, lumbering bank? You buy the brains and the relationships. Mizuho’s playbook is all about targeted, boutique acquisitions. Greenhill gave them a top-tier M&A advisory foothold. Augusta & Co. plugs them directly into the red-hot renewable energy dealmaking scene. And the Avendus Capital deal isn’t just about India’s growth—it’s about accessing the domestic corporate network that global banks struggle to crack. This is a far more surgical and arguably capital-efficient approach than their peers are taking. It’s about buying expertise and deal flow, not just balance sheets.
The Domestic AI and Retail Gambit
Now, this global push doesn’t mean they’re ignoring home. Japan’s rising interest rates actually make domestic deposits valuable again as a cheap funding source. So Mizuho is getting creative there, too. Partnering with Rakuten is a no-brainer for digital reach. But the really clever move is using AI to attack the small business segment. Major banks have traditionally avoided it because underwriting small loans is so labor-intensive. But by taking a majority stake in Upsider Holdings for its AI-driven credit model, as noted in their July announcement, Mizuho is trying to turn a cost center into a scalable business. It’s a tech-forward solution to an old banking problem.
A More Focused Future
Kihara’s statement that they have “no intention” to own asset managers overseas is the final piece of the puzzle. It draws a clear line in the sand. Mizuho isn’t trying to be a universal bank in every market. It wants to be the go-to facilitator for corporate clients moving money and doing deals across borders, from the US to Europe to Asia. And it wants to fund that operation with a smarter, tech-enabled retail and small business base in Japan. It’s a focused, two-pronged strategy. Will it work better than the scatter-shot, stake-buying approach of its rivals? That’s the billion-dollar question. But at least Mizuho’s path is now crystal clear. They’re going on the offensive, and they’re doing it their own way.
