Sony breaks into online banking

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By Martyn Williams

(IDG) -- Sony doesn't just want to own your living room, it wants all of your money too. The company launched its latest push Monday into consumer finance with the opening of Sony Bank.

The new bank, in which Sony holds an 80 percent stake, operates solely online and was established with offline Japanese banking giant, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, and J.P. Morgan Chase, which hold stakes of 16 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

Sony Bank hopes to attract 400,000 customers within its first three years of operation and 600,000 by its fifth year in business, according to a Sony statement. Customers will be able to use the extensive ATM network of Sumitomo Mitsui to deposit and withdraw cash, while J.P. Morgan has supplied a financial management software tool that users will install as part of the service.

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In addition to yen-based accounts, the bank will also offer investment trusts, loans, automatic payments, and other services, the statement says. Within its first year of operation, the bank also hopes to launch foreign currency-based deposit accounts, credit card services, and housing loans.

Using this combination of intelligent software, the bank's Web site and the ATM network, Sony Bank is targeting deposits of $5 billion after three years.

The financial business is nothing new for Sony. The company is involved in the insurance business and also operates a leasing and credit-financing business in Japan, Sony Finance International.

The company is hoping to use the Internet to tie these services together in order to reach out to its customers. In the same way, it wants home networking to connect electronics products and hopes that network will allow its content business a direct path to consumers.