INTERVIEW: Daiwa Securities to Shoulder Employees’ Student Loans

May 25, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Daiwa Securities Group Inc. will set up a system to temporarily shoulder student loans that its employees took out when in school, President Seiji Nakata has said.

Under the system, the firm's mutual aid society will lend money to such employees interest-free so they can pay back their student loans in a lump sum, Nakata said in a recent interview.

Daiwa will lighten the borrowers' burden by granting a repayment moratorium of five years from the time they joined the brokerage house.

Nakata said he hopes his employees "will concentrate on work without being troubled by the burden of student loans."

"The system will also help us retain our human resources better," he added.

Through the system, to be introduced around summer this year, the company hopes to secure talented people.

Daiwa will work out details, such as the maximum amount of loans to employees and how to repay the mutual aid society.

According to the Japan Student Services Organization, which provides financial support for students, the average sum of university student loans totaled 2.37 million yen per person for the interest-free type and 3.43 million yen for the interest-bearing type.

The organization grants repayment moratoria to borrowers with an annual income of 3 million yen or under and accepts cuts in early-stage repayment amounts for those who have just started work and their salaries are low. But some borrowers go bankrupt without being able to repay their loans. Jiji Press