Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC)

Is SMBC safe?

For depositors, yes. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), one of Japan's three largest financial groups, had a CET1CET1 ratioA bank's highest-quality capital (mainly shares and retained profits) as a share of its risk-weighted assets. Higher means more room to absorb losses.More in the glossary capital ratio of 12.63% at 30 June 2026, about 4.5 points above its 8.17% requirement, and its liquidity coverage ratioLiquidity coverage ratioA bank's cash and easy-to-sell assets compared with the money that could flow out in a 30-day crisis. It must be at least 100%.More in the glossary averaged 138%. Yen deposits at its bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), are insured by the Deposit InsuranceDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary Corporation of Japan up to ¥10 million per depositor, and interest-free settlement accounts are covered in full. We score it 76/100, between MUFG at 78 and Mizuho at 73. The deductions come from the group's securities arm, SMBC Nikko, whose 2022 market manipulation case brought FSA orders, and from occasional core-system failures at the bank.

What Japanese deposit insurance covers at SMBC

The rules are the same at every bank in Japan. Interest-bearing ordinary deposits, time deposits and similar accounts are protected up to ¥10 million of principal per depositor at each bank, plus interest. Settlement deposits, which pay no interest, can be withdrawn on demand and can be used for payments, are protected in full with no upper limit.

What falls outside:

• Foreign currency deposits.
• Negotiable certificates of deposit.
• Investment trusts, bonds and insurance, whether sold at an SMBC branch or held at SMBC Nikko Securities.

SMBC Trust Bank is a separate bank, so deposits there have their own ¥10 million limit. SMFG is on the Financial Stability Board's list of global systemically important banksG-SIBA global systemically important bank: one of the large banks the Financial Stability Board lists each year because its failure could harm the world economy.More in the glossary in bucket 1, the lowest surcharge band.

Capital and liquidity

The capital buffer is a little narrower than at Mizuho but comfortable, and the ratio rose in the quarter to June. Liquidity sits between Mizuho and MUFG: the coverage ratio has ranged from 132% to 141% over the last five quarters. Deposits grew 6% in the year to March 2026 and exceed loans, but a large share comes from companies with balances far above the insurance limit, which is normal for a Japanese megabank.

SMFG also holds a stake in the US investment bank Jefferies under a capital and business alliance, valued at ¥242.9 billion in its 2026 annual report. That is a small exposure next to ¥12.9 trillion of CET1 capital.

The SMBC Nikko case

The group's most serious recent problem was in its broker, not its bank. In March and April 2022 Tokyo prosecutors arrested former executives and staff of SMBC Nikko Securities on suspicion of illegal stabilisation trading, propping up share prices around large block sales, and later prosecuted SMBC Nikko itself. On 7 October 2022 the FSA suspended SMBC Nikko's block offer business until 6 January 2023, issued a business improvement order, and ordered SMFG to improve its oversight of the subsidiary.

We found no FSA business improvement order against SMBC itself in the last ten years. That puts its conduct record roughly level with MUFG and Mizuho, whose banks have also drawn FSA orders (MUFG Bank in 2024, Mizuho Bank in 2021).

System failures

SMBC's record is better than Mizuho's, but not clean. On 29 April 2025, during Golden Week, one of the 16 computers in SMBC's domestic core banking system failed at about 1:20am. Accounts at 28 branches, mostly in Kansai, could not be used for deposits or withdrawals until 11:16pm, the Olive app stopped working for those customers, and 22 off-branch ATMs went down. Local governments that bank with SMBC were affected too. In April 2022 a separate fault left ATM connections to the core system unstable over a weekend. We found no FSA action over either.

How to keep your money safe at SMBC

1. Keep yen deposits at SMBC within ¥10 million if you want them all insured, or use an interest-free settlement account for larger sums.
2. Treat foreign currency deposits and investment products bought at a branch as uninsured.
3. Keep a card and some cash access at a second bank in case of an outage like April 2025.
4. Set transfer limits for online banking and never share one-time passwords. Japan has no general refund scheme for scam payments you authorise yourself.

How we scored it

Deposit protectionDeposit insuranceA government-backed scheme that repays bank customers up to a set limit if their bank fails, such as the FDIC in the US or the FSCS in the UK.More in the glossary (84), liquidity (82) and capital (80) are SMBC's strongest factors: a scheme that fully covers settlement accounts, a coverage ratio well above 100% and a buffer of about 4.5 points. Conduct (64) is the weakest, reflecting the 2022 SMBC Nikko case. Digital security (66) reflects core-system failures in 2022 and 2025.