Tokyo, Japan August 9, 2006

There are still causes for concern at large Japanese domestic financial institutions regarding measures to protect personal information.

Concern for personal information leaks has been rising in Japan in recent years, and nowadays, financial institutions in Japan are required to undertake stricter organizational measures. In the new Celent report, , Celent found that despite increased regulation there are ongoing causes for concern. According to the survey, several companies pointed out that there were concern for human error risk that could be never zeroed, and for data located on numerous paper, instead of digital data.

Celent carried out a survey of 10 major domestic banks, security firms, and insurance carriers aiming to analyze their security measures to protect personal information. The report provides an overview of financial institutions' compliance with the Financial Service Agency guidelines and the Financial Information Systems Center (FISC) standards and what security measures they have implemented.

"Japan's domestic financial institutions are undertaking organizational efforts to protect personal information. However that does not guarantee corporate safety," says Yumiko Manchu, Celent analyst and author of the report. "In the midst of ongoing business mergers and expansion, financial institutions, whether focused on domestic business or not, will have the need to strategically consider regulations and take measures that will contribute to their business."

Celent surveyed 10 major domestic banks, security firms, and insurance companies, studied their organizational measures and analyzed their main concerns.

The 21-page report contains four figures and one table. A table of contents is available here.