This is the announcement of the six months period financial results and so i t is my turn to talk to you, but actually, for the other interim period, I think this is probably going to be the last time for me to present results. So going forward, once a year, I will meet you to present our financial results. That is my plan. And of course, the materials or presentation will be checked rigorously by myself based on my own idea, so please rest assured. So without further ado, for about two hours from now, or it could be longer than two hours, let me present our results.
First, the outline of the results. As you can see, the revenue, JPY 1,057.5 billion, or up 17.2% year-on-year. Pretax profit, JPY 324.3 billion, up 52.9%. Profit for the period, JPY 249.1 billion, up 52.6%. Profit attributable to owners of the parent, JPY 230.6 billion, up 39.1%. So the annualized ROE for the first half, 23.2%. So this is the comparison of consolidated performance with major securities groups. According to some press report, we have banking and also, but all the other groups also have those business, the categories, so please write if you like, that the audience would understand that all the businesses are included here.
And as you can see, between ourselves and Nomura, the pretax, the profit, or the profit for the period attributable to owners of parent are not so different. Nomura has more than 100 years of history, and ourself has only about 26 years of history. Daiwa Securities Group is lagging behind the performance of SBI Holdings. By segment, this is the first half results. Our Financial Services Business is the main driver of the performance. The pretax profit for the very first time exceeded JPY 200 billion mark. The revenue, JPY 129.7 billion, and e ach segment, in most of the cases, the numbers hit the record highs.
As to Crypto-asset Business, the [inaudible] is approved or not, and there are some issues. And because of that, the pretax profit is in negative, but a very small negative number. Under such circumstances, the Financial Services Business is doing very well, and a s to dividend, basically, this Financial Services Business is the basis for the calculation of dividends. So the current situation will not change so much, so t oward the end of the year, we did not present forecast for the year-end dividend, but here I am presenting JPY 80 as year-end dividend and t he annual dividend is JPY 110 per share.
And this is IFRS-based, the Financial Services Business performance development, and h ere alone, excluding gain on sale of former SBI Sumishin Net Bank shares. And here, for second half of FY 2025, included gain on sale of former SBI Sumishin Net Bank shares of JPY 141.6 billion, so i t jumped the number to JPY 306.9 billion. As to dividend, basically, especially for the dividend, we are going to make more efforts to increase shareholders' return at the very strong demand from the shareholders, so w e would like to take this policy to increase our dividend.
As to SBI Shinsei Bank, from FY 2026, introduced interim dividends, paying an interim dividend of JPY 10 per share. SBI Leasing Services, interim dividend of JPY 30 per share, up JPY 5. SBI Global Asset Management, year-on-year, it is increasing the dividend. As to the year-end dividend, continue increasing year-end dividend for 18 consecutive years and SBI Insurance Group, at up JPY 12.5, forecast of JPY 59 per share. As to segment-wise performance, Financial Services Business, as I mentioned earlier, the revenue up 17.3% at JPY 829.7 billion. Pretax profit, JPY 200 billion, more than JPY 200 billion, up 69.7%. Both of them are record highs.
The banking business up 45.8%, exceeding JPY 100 billion in the first half and t he securities business with JPY 64.8 billion, or up 90%. Those are the pretax profit breakdown and t he insurance business, the huge growth rate, the size is still small, JPY 18.6 billion and up 227.1%. As to banking business, more detailed explanation. The gross operating profit, net operating profit before credit costs, the pretax profit on each line numbers hit record highs for SBI Shinsei Bank and t he growth, as you can see here, as to profit attributable to owners of the parent, because of tax issue, these are the results, but there is no problem that we observe here.
As to SBI Shinsei Bank's retail accounts and total deposits, as of the end of March comparison of each year, for 2026, that is for the first half alone, the total amount of deposits and the number of retail accounts exceeded the annual results of the previous years, s o it is a very strong result. And in December 2021, they joined SBI Group, and they continued to grow year after year. SBI Shinsei Bank's, SBI Hyper Deposit, which is offered with SBI SECURITIES, and both the deposit and the account number are increasing with JPY 1.5 trillion. On September 8th, the deposit exceeded JPY 1.5 trillion mark, and as to the number of deposit accounts, 710,000 accounts.
As to the operating asset of SBI Shinsei Bank, after December 2021, when they joined the group, the growth has been significant. So at the end of September, with JPY 19.5 trillion exceeding annual results of the previous year at JPY 18 trillion. Now securities business. On this occasion, I did not plan to talk about this page, but please look at this page. SBI Thai Online Securities in Thailand, SBI Royal Securities, BNI Sekuritas, FPT Securities. So we have— those securities entities in Southeast Asia.
In the banking business, we are operating in various other areas, and that applies also to securities business and t his is SBI SECURITIES' first half results from April to September. On all of these lines, numbers hit the record highs. In all levels, we achieved the record highs and t he growth is a very strong growth. SBI SECURITIES, the consolidated expense ratio is 58.1% and much lower than other entities compared to Nomura or Daiwa. So i f the market goes down, then the expense ratio, the smaller the expense ratio is, the more resilient you would find yourself to be.
And the diversification of revenue, the revenue sources, and the strengthening of the earnings capability paid off, and the revenue of SBI SECURITIES increased significantly. Please look at those details. In each category, we saw big growth and t his is the quarterly, quarter-on-quarter comparison. In most of the cases, compared to the first quarter, second quarter, the second quarter was down. But in our case, 8.5%+ quarter-on-quarter basis and t he number of securities accounts at the SBI Group. For the very first time in Japan, the number exceeded 17 million on October 15 and the ZERO Revolution led us to the current situation.
As to compound annual growth rate, as of the end of September, 13.4%. From end of March 2009 to end of March 2026, the CAGR 13.4%, and while Nomura only 1.9% and t he change going forward is the customer basis. Nomura has senior people as customers, while SBI has much younger customers, but n owadays, though we are receiving more and more senior people as customers, and everyone passes away some way or the other, and that brings about the issue of inheritance and that is connected to younger generation, namely their children.
So in many cases, those younger people will be or are our customers already, which is another additional benefit for us. Also, neo-media strategy was, I think, very good. Neo-media strategy. With that strategy, people criticized me, "Why the financial group to be involved in neo-media?" When you do not understand, you do not understand. You need to look at the results.
In terms of the SBI SECURITIES business, in terms of the assets under custody, it was increased by 39% to JPY 79 trillion. Since the start of the ZERO Revolution, that was back in September 2023, it has accelerated in terms of the growth, so we are aiming towards JPY 100 trillion. So we are diversifying the revenue sources, and we are definitely seeing the results, so t hese are in order of the revenue contribution. So in terms of the financial, the revenues, as you can tell from these bar graphs, so it has trended at a high level, trended open interest credit balance that is definitely supporting the overall, the financial revenue.
S o of course, that is exceeding JPY 3 trillion mark, just for the interest in the credit balance, so t hat is quite strong. Also, in terms of the financial revenues, of which revenue from margin trading is JPY 43.8 billion year-on-year, that is increased by 36.4% and i t has been a steady growth. So next is on the trading revenues. So FX revenue was especially the strong driver., so t hose for the spot as well as for the swap revenue, the spot revenue and the swap revenue. Unless you have a system such as ours, we will not be able to generate a profit as successfully as we have.
And of course, if you have an automated system, quite often you would face issues, but w e do have some manual operation, very talented, the people, the experts are engaging in the FX revenue, so we are not facing any issues. Also, in terms of the fixed income and so forth, of course, we are not at the state to strongly grow that. So, in terms of the foreign, the bonds, it is actually trending flat, b ut of course, we are watching carefully the interest rate situation as well as the FX. But it has definitely become a steady base of our financial revenue. So this shows the investment trust balance as well as the investment trust fees, so b oth of them, they have been record high. This is quite incredible in terms of the investment trust.
So if you actually look at the balance here, increased by 49.5% year-on-year. Also, in terms of the balance, JPY 32.3 trillion, quite an incredible level. And likewise for the investment trust fees on the right-hand side, again, JPY 7 billion record high. Year-on-year, 48.9% increase. Next is on the revenue from foreign stocks at SBI SECURITIES. It has grown quite substantially. So especially the U.S. stocks. We have the trading value has been a record high, JPY 7.3 trillion. Also, in terms of the margin trading, it is JPY 2.5 billion, so t he JPY 7.3 trillion, this is for the actual equity, the spot, that is and also, in terms of the revenue, the first half of this year, last year, that was JPY 4 billion. Now, we are actually seeing at JPY 10 billion to 2.5 times.
And actually, this is quite surprising, the SpaceX. Perhaps I shouldn't say it is surprising, but it has actually contributed to the revenue. So JPY 550 million, that is the sales commission, trading commission, and foreign exchange fees combined together, so a t the time of the IPO of the U.S.-based SpaceX, we've actually partially underwrote that, and we've been able to generate JPY 550 million. So SBI SECURITIES, the retail, JGB sales. So JGB, and so Oko has been really having the slogan to grow the sales of the JGB, and there's been an incredible growth. Also, on the right-hand side, the top institutions by retail JGB sales, we are definitely top in the round of more than JPY 300 billion or so.
Timing is important, so you really have to really focus on certain timing and really have to promote it at that specific timing. So I've been involved in this business for a long time, so I can see it, what is the best timing and what should be conducted. So 50 years I have been doing my business. So I have honed this capability, intuition, shall we say, to assess that timing. So next is the primary and secondary underwriting business, that is for the equity and fixed income.
So in terms of the IPO underwriting, since April 2026 to September 2026, 25 companies have IPO'd. Within that, 24 cases, SBI has been involved. So underlying, the percentage is closer to 96% or so. So within that, SBI SECURITIES been the main, the manager and w e have eight cases. So we have the corporate bonds as well as the public bonds. Actually, recently, they have been coming to us rather than us trying to sell, so t hat really shows our strong capability to sell. SoftBank, the retail bonds, of course, is quite a large unit.
So we, as the leading, the manager. Unless we are the lead manager, they will not be able to sell that. So g iven the current environment, SoftBank, the sector, the area they are trying to engage in, it might be challenging. So next on the expansion of the customer base and further strengthening of the revenue and some of the initiatives. So it is really about Kodomo NISA and capturing the minor accounts. This is anticipation of the future, so we would like to really focus on this initiative. So our commercials, I am pretty sure you have seen those in various places, so this is definitely a focus area for us. So this will be starting January 2027, so w e are expanding our minor accounts.
So in Japan, the population age 0- 17 is 17 million, so it is actually easy to remember, isn't it? Zero to 17 year olds, currently 17 million in terms of the number. Junior NISA, that was the predecessor. It had only 1.04 million accounts. So i n terms of the penetration, it is mere 6%, so t hat is why this time around, we hope that this will come to its success. Also, hopefully, it would actually go to the full-fledged NISA, which is for 18 years or above. So we are hoping that this will be successful, so t hat is why we are collaborating with SBI Shinsei Bank. So we have quite a lot of the interest been provided, and it has been expansion of tools, so w e can actually combine the assets of the parents and the child's together. Those are some of the functionalities.
A collaboration with the media business as part of our sales promotion. The role that media business is going to play definitely is going to be larger. Also, the financial education, that is important. As far as Kodomo NISA is concerned, we have this 0% trust fee, a so-called Zero-Kan. So t his has drawn much attention from the market. So from Zero-Kan, and of course, after age 18, it will be all country, All-Kan. So it will be Zero-Kan to All-Kan, so w e are hopefully, we like to facilitate that flow from Zero-Kan to the All-Kan. So this is the fourth round of the ZERO Revolution, and this is an appeal to the parent and child asset-building households.
So up until 17, you can use the Kodomo NISA, and beyond 18, it will be all country. That is the flow that we would like to generate. So o n the left-hand side, once you join, you cannot really change the securities company, so t hat is why we have to focus on that to lock those customers in. Next is the open alliance strategy and so w e are collaborating with SMBC Group. So for instance, Olive Consulting, it has been launched already, so i t was back in May 26 of 2026, that was the launch date and a lready, as of the 29th of October of this year, we have 281,000 accounts.
Also, the asset under custody is JPY 2.54 trillion, so i t is quite incredible, the SMBC Group's capability in terms of the number of customers, and also their really quality, the consulting channel. So that is definitely giving force to the Olive Consulting, and it has earned the trust of the customers, leading to these incredible numbers. Moving on to the digital, the affluent customers. We are seeing the increase in the number. So our securities, the customers, we have plenty of these digital affluent customers. So through Olive Consulting, we could have a referral service for partner companies, including SBI Group companies.
So at the launch of the service, we have various connections and w e have been engaging in a fairly highly specialized dialogue and extending consulting to the customers. Next is on JR Kyushu. So we have announced a strategic business alliance. So this is the first boss in the railway industry and o f course, it is a financial super app that has securities and other functions, so t hat is the intention of this business alliance. We have a comprehensive financial platform, JQ Bank. Of course, this is a tentative name, but we would like to introduce this platform.
The functionalities of SBI Group, that is the banking, securities, insurance, and combine that with the JR Kyushu's railway, real estate, points, and so forth. Those could be converged together, so t hat is the kind of app we intend to develop. So JR Kyushu, the customer base that they have, it is near 5 million in terms of the customer base.
Moving on to insurance business. We have various constituent companies, as you can tell. So Kyobo Life Insurance, that is from Korea, and Ly Hour SBI Insurance is from Cambodia, so a lready, we have been launching our insurance businesses in various countries and t his is the consolidated performance. Across the board, it has been record high. I move on to in-force, the total. So as of March end 2016, that is for 10 years. So 12.1% annualized growth that we have seen, or CAGR growth, rather. That has been quite steady. So as of April end of 2025, we have topped 3 million in terms of the in-force, so w e have 3.31 million in terms of the in-force policies.
Now moving on to the Asset Management Business. Here, we have many new companies joining our group, including Rheos Capital Works and SBI Okasan Asset Management. And under the circumstances, we have been achieving record high results and t he SBI Global Asset Management, the consolidated results, it is J-GAAP, and this has been growing steadily well, as you see here and then t he AUM of SBI Global Asset Management Group, the assets under management reached approximately JPY 14 trillion, and we are targeting JPY 20 trillion during FY 2026.
With Asakura-san, we are working on this. By FY 2029, we would like to achieve JPY 50 trillion AUM. As for the PE Investment Business, this has also been involving a lot of new technical evolutions. And w hen we find these, we are very keen about capturing the momentum and opportunities, and t hey are blossoming nowadays, and they are really contributing to the profit increase of this investment business. There are the investees of IPOs and M&As. And throughout FY 2026, March 2027, we have 29 companies in prospect, and it is becoming much bigger than the initial prospect and the previous year.
And in the first half, there has been six companies, and seven companies in the first half, and in the second half, six companies. We have such great prospects. I have great expectations in this area. As for Ripple, it goes up and down over time, but in terms of the development of the ecosystem, it has been making good progress, I think. So It is the most promising business. The Bitcoin as an asset, we have been holding, but as for XRP, it is being used in various different forms, so they would actually invite actual demand.
So there is still the current Ripple's holdings that are not in circulation, which is about JPY 7.6 trillion. As regards to the listing, according to my idea, which I do not speak about much, maybe next year sometime, we might talk up, do the listing. Maybe it is about time. Then again, there is a tricky part about this, which is relating to the presidential election, who is going to be elected. I think President Trump's Republican Party would be winning in both the upper house and lower house, but not many people are predicting that as I do.
So I do not know. But in fact, during the previous election, many people thought Kamala would be winning, but I was thinking Trump would be winning overwhelming victory and t he reason why I thought so, I have been watching X all the time, and I have been checking Trump's speech, and I have been especially noting the number of gatherings. It was completely different from that of the Democrats. And who are the Democrats who are not really visible? It is like, maybe there are some leaders, regional leaders, but when it comes to the next candidate for the president, some people are still talking about Kamala Harris, and I do not think that would be the case.
How that outcome will be is the question, and whether the CLARITY Act would pass or not. The administration, whether it is SEC or CFTC, they are administratively, making sure that this cryptocurrency world is authorized, so it does not matter anymore. Around the world, this area is making progress. And f or the U.S., which is most important, as fiat, as the key currency, in order for the U.S. to keep the dollars as the key currency, they need the cryptocurrency and the stablecoin.
So the U.S. would have to be making focus on this, whether it is the Republicans or Democrats. Now, about the XRP treasury. There is Evernorth that has been listed, and the market cap is now about JPY 140 billion. Our voting rights is now 36.1%, and we are the largest shareholder and equity method associate, and the economic interest is 20.5%. And aside from this, there is XRP issuing entity, Ripple Labs equity. We have about 9% stake in the Ripple Labs. So outstandingly, we have a great influence on the company, and the value upgrading would also lead to the value upgrade for our company as well.
Moving on to the assets under management of the SBI Group, the private equity, the so-called unlisted equity. That investment is now JPY 1.332 trillion. And as I see here, there is a great percentage of the U.S., which is about JPY 496 million, JPY 497 billion and I am being shifting to the U.S. nowadays too, that a lot of technology is coming out from the U.S. In Japan, for instance, there is SBI Shinsei Bank. How are we going to change it? We are getting a lot of implications from these technologies coming out from the U.S.
So, we are putting our capital in such areas. So the U.S. is large. Naturally, Japan is another big one, JPY 283.4 billion. It is another big weight holder. Now, crypto-assets business, like I said earlier, the CLARITY Act, and there was unstability throughout the first half, and there were ups and downs, especially at the end of September, at the end of the fiscal year. There was a big drawdown that could impact us, just with such one day's drawdown. Such influence could be coming from the market with these crypto-assets.
As for the number of accounts for crypto-assets, as you know, bitbank joined us from October 1st this year. It became our subsidiary, fully owned subsidiary. So with that now, JPY 1.116 trillion would be the balance. And some investors may say we should consolidate all these, and we are discussing such possibilities too, but t here are, of course, good aspects of having separate companies for one, and there are also inefficiencies on the other, or partially, maybe in the back office, maybe they should be consolidated into one. That's one idea we're having.
In any case, from various different angles, we are discussing, and we'd like to come up with some kind of conclusion. As for the assets under management, we think we are the top holder in the market. As for the number of accounts, Mercari has been having a lot of small-sized customers, so maybe they are top in the number of accounts, maybe. Now, Next Gen Business. This is including biohealth, new media, Web3-related businesses, and Mynavi. Mynavi should not be staying here forever either, so at some point in time, so we may have to move to a different place. In any case, in the wide range of areas, we are doing various different businesses.
Basically, we are engaged in the human resources company. So this is similar to Recruit, that is Mynavi, that's the general understanding, but t here's also the media business that they're doing as well. Mynavi is engaged in various different business areas, and its profitability is high as well. It's generating good profit. Now, from here on, I'd like to go into the main topic for today. So here are the strategic initiatives being focused on in the current fiscal year. So like I said earlier, if I talk about these things too much, some other companies may imitate us immediately.
Maybe I feel like I should refrain from talking about this too much, maybe just once a year, but i n any case, the challenge is that Webex, webinar requests, or there are so many requests coming to me for keynote speeches. And when I speak too much, when I try to refrain, on the other hand, it's not going to be good, so t hat's an issue. In any case, as much as possible, I'd like to talk about the strategy, because it really is the strategy. Some would have to be discrete to a certain extent.
And if I speak too much, I could be revealing too much, so I should control myself. So there are five points here, and in short, I'd like to briefly talk about these. Especially, we have three TV cameras facing me, so I'd like to be distinct and precise here. So first, regarding the intensively in strengthening security measures toward making the SBI Group fully AI-driven. So n ow, the security is very, very important. In other words, when the system is down and when our credibility is gone, our business will not be viable.
So we have been doing this business for 26, 27 years, and I truly think so. We consider security to be very, very important. So security, in many ways, has been in place to be prepared against the cyberattacks. We are utilizing AI, and we have multilayer defense. We are thinking about a lot of different things, and I'd like to explain these one by one. First, regarding the multilayered defense using AI. So Claude Mythos of Anthropic is something that I consider to be very effective. So the high-performance AI, we need to enhance the level of AI, otherwise we cannot cope with the coming era. So Claude Mythos, embedded Claude Security, that's being introduced across the SBI Group. That's been decided already.
And now furthermore, AI would be checking the source code weakness without taking any time. If any issues were found, it would be fixed immediately. I'm always saying this behind the scenes too, but don't spare any of the expenses here. If we try to save money there, we could lose our trust, lose our business. Don't think about cost when it comes to security. That's my strong message to the whole group. We are authorized by Anthropic to use these certain functions, and we are going to utilize those functions as well.
Fortunately, in such areas, we were one of the fastest companies to be acknowledged by Anthropic. It's not 100% just yet, but we are acknowledged to a lot of areas. So using Mythos, I'd like to use this. Well, there are both defense side and offense side. As for the offense side, we don't need to offend or attack anyone, but o n the other hand, when it comes to our system, when there's attacker, the white hacker would be doing the imitation of the attacking and draw out what is the vulnerability and w ith that, as soon as possible, fix those bugs or issues that were found. That's what we are doing.
Furthermore, 24/7 AI-powered security operation center is also available. Nowadays, AI shall be utilized to the fullest. Otherwise, you cannot do even such simple things either. In our three biggest strategy, we are talking about AI-driven, fully AI-driven company is what we'd like to become and a lso, we're going to do the on-chain transition. That's what we've been talking about from before. The company that does not do such things would be left behind in the new era. So i f you cannot catch up with the new era, you would be losing out in the market. You have to leave the market.
SBI SECURITIES is using several AIs to diagnose and address vulnerabilities, utilizing the AI, prioritizing critical vulnerabilities. So for everything, you need to do the prioritization. Priority is very important, in other words. You need to do this. Of course, any detection, every single detection of the issues would have to be fixed. So with AI, in a few days, identify weakness. Maybe it should be much faster than a few days. We should identify those weaknesses much more quickly and a nything that may be a single tool cannot find would have to be detected and fixed. So various different AIs are having various different uniqueness, and combining these various different AIs would draw out great effect.
In July 2026, we began to use Claude Security for vulnerability diagnosis. And from October 2026, we are also using Claude Mythos for vulnerability diagnosis, so w e are utilizing all those functions that have been authorized by Anthropic. So Mega three, called by JFSA, and two Mega Three banks. Minister was talking about Mega Three, but I do not know what happened. I do not know how these mega banks are actually utilizing AI now to counteract against the cybersecurity. I do not get much news. Maybe I am speaking too much. Maybe it is better not to speak too much. I do not know which is better.
Now, preparing for high-frequency AI-driven attacks with Eversafe’s dynamic defense. I have acquired this Korean company, SBI Everspin. Sorry, not acquire. We created a joint venture in Japan with this company, and we came to introduce those products into Japan. And t he other day, NHK went to Korea to cover the story and visited Hao-san , the representative of the company. Korea has been damaged very much by the cyberattacks, but the companies that were introduced Everspin were saved. They were safe. That is the actual outcome they enjoyed, so w e need to introduce more Everspin and Eversafe.
So Eversafe is preventing the attacks at various different phases, like analytical prevention. It is making it difficult to analyze the structure and behavior apps and web services, because once it is analyzed by the attacker, it is over. The dynamic defense. We have already filed relevant patents in 11 different countries, 33 patents and so w e are making sure constant changes, and therefore, the defense, and making analysis results unusable and t here is server-side verification, determines whether access is from legitimate use and blocks automated attacks.
So we are always changing the defense style and making the attacker to do the analysis over and over again. As a result, it becomes not economically viable for the attackers, but I was talking about this at the board meeting earlier too, and there is Trend Micro, which I have been close with, and I am asking Trend Micro to be introduced. Trend Micro would not have been listed without me. It was only a small, tiny lab in Taiwan, but I brought this to Japan, and I came to serve as CEO. I supported the company, and it was listed in Japan.
And Now, in the U.S., Nasdaq, it has been listed and t heir engineers, Eva Chen, she is the CEO, Taiwanese CEO. She is a very smart, excellent person. There is McAfee and various others, but they were all ousted from the market. Trend Micro became the outstanding market player. With the founder, I have been very close, who is Steve Chang. He sometimes comes over to Japan, and I meet him whenever he does. So the development of AI infrastructure and AX toward becoming fully AI-driven.
So in the cyberattacks, we can even see how AI could be functioning in preventing the cyberattacks. So the AI promotion level is very important. Ever since April 2026, in the whole group, we have been promoting the structure of AI transformation, but we could not have done this alone, I judged. Therefore, with Ridge-i, I had their support, and with Yanagihara-san, he became our outside director. With that, with the whole group, we are trying to promote this AX now. There is the top-down decision-making process, and there are community and view reports, and I am always attending these meetings. The group’s common AI structure, that is introduced everywhere.
All 71 group companies are having this as a common AI platform, 71 companies and 10 companies with API integration. So with Microsoft 365, it has been also connected too. So we are on the way toward the full AI-driven transformation. As we do such things, the cost can be reduced very much. Within three years, the total of JPY 48.2 billion cost reduction is expected, as shown here, from these areas. Especially Shinsei Bank is large, SECURITIES is also large. With such plans, we are working on cost reductions. This AX project, AI transformation is AX and n ot just in AX, but there is going to be digital transformation and some other work process improvements.
We are accelerating these activities all across the company and the groups, and I am endeavoring to do this. I have been leading this movement so that the whole group would be moving. Our company group is relatively good and agile in doing such things. We are such a company. Focusing on building on-chain financial infrastructure toward realizing SBI APAC Digital Economic Zone, on-chain companies are spreading. And when we started to work on the on-chain initiative, nobody knew about it, and now it is widespread, and this term also is widespread, especially in the financial sector. It is becoming a more important concept.
Tokenization, and this word also, is the word that I might be the first person to start talking about it and spreading it in the society, and writing books and explain about the concept. And a lso in English, there was publication, and the book is read in many countries as well. SBI APAC Digital Economic Zone, as to this APAC region, I think is a very important region. In terms of population, it is increasing, and economic growth is very strong. In Vietnam, for example, almost 10%, like 9.9% economic growth was announced by the government.
So I feel very attracted to that market. It is a complete opposite of the Japanese situation. Developing on-chain-enabled exchanges, because the venue is needed for digital asset. So we are going to develop on-chain-enabled exchanges both at home and abroad. For example, the example overseas, Robinhood did a 24-hour trading of tokenized stocks on its own chain from June 2025. For EU, more than 200 U.S. stock and ETF token have been offered. Now it has exceeded 2,000, more than 2,000 issues at a very high speed globally, though we are seeing such development. Real-world asset chain forecast AI-native Arbitrum, based on Arbitrum.
This is the Robinhood Chain, AI-native Ethereum L2, Robinhood Chain, that is enabling trading 24/7 in over 120 countries. And w ith DeFi protocols such as Morpho, and the tokens can also be used for collateral and yield generation and Morpho is one of our invested companies. We have covered everything. A securities company with its own chain provides trading, collateral, and yield generation for tokenized stocks on an integrated basis. This is the example. For me, I would like to be dominant in this area. That is the tokenized trading of real stocks, like equity. That is one thing.
The voting right and the dividend and shareholders' right remain intact, and traded with the same order book price and ticker as conventional shares. The trading, though, will be possible in my idea. The other day, people from Nasdaq came to see me, CEO, and we had a meal together, and the discussion was very successful. We will have the people from the New York Stock Exchange as well to discuss this. In our case, we have Osaka Exchange and the PTS in Tokyo, so we can operate separately or integrate, though we have not come to a conclusion yet.
As to Robinhood-style linked tokens, that is one thing, but unlike that, the stocks themselves are brought on chain within the existing market framework. This is the example but t hat is what Nasdaq is trying to do, or the New York Stock Exchange is also trying to do it. As to PTS, we have to develop it into an exchange because more than 10% of total listed securities, over 20% in any individual issue, these are the rules. With this criteria, you have to be an exchange, according to the FSA. If that is the case, then we are going to establish an exchange, on-chain exchange, that is.
And we need to get an approval about UTP, unlisted trading privileges. So once you get listed there, like the TSE, then it will be also used for this, and that is what UTP. And UTP exists in the U.S., not yet in Japan. The TSE wants the government to say no, but we will be behind the trend if that happens. Looking back, under the Hashimoto administration from 1996, the Japanese Big Bang started, and in 1999, finally, the trading fees were deregulated and s o now, the 17 million customers of the securities have been highly appreciating our services. But the administrative or the political moves to try to block it is really impossible. I will always fight such trend or moves.
But once it becomes an exchange, then it can only handle stocks listed on its own market. That means that if you are not get listed and without a UTP, then it would not be treated. And even if on-chain and exchange exists, if that is the case, what is the meaning? So on-chain, the next-generation exchange, it means that 24/7 trading and instant settlement should be possible and m icro-trading as well, tokenization, and the stablecoin support should be perfectly there and t hat is what we need to achieve. Building a global network of regulatory-compliant digital asset exchanges centered on APAC.
As you know, we have invested in SBI Coinhako with 51.69%, and changed the name to SBI Coinhako Group. It is a very compliant crypto-asset platform to be built. If it is not Japan, then we will go global. That is my message, which remains intact. The group of financial institutions are in this trend. The MAS operates through SBI Coinhako Technology, which holds a major payment institution license from MAS, and Alpha Hako, registered with the BVIFSC. Based in Singapore, where digital asset regulation is most advanced, building on-chain finance functions through partnerships with local companies like Startale, and co-chair of JPYSC DigiFT, which tokenizes Japanese equity funds, SBI Digital Markets, and AsiaNext.
And the service as the exchange that delivers JPYSC and other products to investors in global markets. And also important thing is combining JPYSC with USD-denominated USDC and Ripple USD, we endeavor to realize the yen-dollar cross-border settlement through SBI Coinhako. No matter how somebody wants to stop it, you cannot. U.A.E., Dubai, temporarily, the regulation became tougher in Singapore, and there was a flow of the new companies to Dubai, because in Dubai, it is more deregulated, but b ecause of the current war, those companies are now back again in Singapore.
Fasset is headquartered in Dubai, but using stablecoin, they provide investment service for remittance payment, and also using stablecoin in Asia, Middle East, and Africa. In this company, we have 20% stake. Its proprietary payment infrastructure, own network, connect 16 blockchains and over 100 banking corridors in 125 countries and regions, over 3 million wallets. I had many dinners and discussions with the top person of this company, very smart guy, and I think these people will lead the trend of the globe. I am 75 years old, and still I am trying so hard to catch up with them at the full speed.
Basic agreement with SBI Remit to build a next-generation international remittance infrastructure, plans to jointly operate a digital bank in Malaysia, and to jointly distribute tokens issued by Fasset. These relationships should be win-win relationships. If not, the relationship will not be sustainable. For joint venture, for example, or for the investment, stake investment, both sides should get benefits, profits, and I always make it sure that will happen. On August the 24th, we made additional investment. So valuation $ 1 billion. More than $ 1 billion, actually, so t hat is about Fasset.
Ajaib from Indonesia, the online, the comprehensive investment platform, t he CEO is still young, but a very smart guy. For online company, he started the business. And in addition to conventional financing, stablecoin, the tokenized deposit, he expanded his business one after another. So very similar to our business model. The number of customers is more than 7 million retail individual investors. It is a very interesting company. Focusing on the Southeast Asia, they are expanding digital asset in the region. That is our aim to go with this company.
Vietnam, the other day— I had visitors from Vietnam. And in November, the secretary general will come from Vietnam, and we are going to have signing ceremony with a certain company in front of him, so that it is about the giving license to five companies, and we are going to make investment in one of those five for the crypto-asset, the trading exchanges. But more than 50% should be held by the Vietnamese company, with which we came to an agreement. It is already very expensive. There is nothing there, but it is very expensive, but a s you can see in this box, the annual crypto-asset trading involving Vietnamese traders is over $ 200 billion, and adoption ranks number four in the world.
Currently, much of the trading takes place on overseas exchanges. It is Reuters. It dated March 17th, 2026, so I thought that this is it. I wanted to get it, but it is very expensive, but u ltimately, it is a decision by the government, so we have to go with it. If it is a company, then I could have negotiated, but it is a decision by the government. This is the only option, they say, so we have to live with it and carve out certain percentage to the other partner as well to win the game.
So there is a law in Vietnam that if you do trade outside the approved exchange, there is a penalty and t here are some other violent problems. So for example, you can see that on X. The economic growth and the population exceeding 100 million a long time ago, and also diligent people. The excellent people, they fought with the U.S. and they won, and they fought with China, actually many, several times, and they won those wars as well. And France— and partly owing to Japan, they got rid of these invasions by other countries. So when there is a fight, they are very strong. When we dine with Vietnamese people, like karaoke, for example, at the very end, they always sing Vietnamese national anthem. It is very interesting.
Developing and distributing tokenized financial products in Japan and overseas in collaboration with overseas partners. As I mentioned earlier, DigiFT is a Singaporean company operated by MAS, launched GOLDX, Southeast Asia's first tokenized gold fund. And i n Japan, in October 2025, as a JV, the SBI Onchain was established with SBI. DigiFT tokenized the SBI Japan High Dividend Equity Fund, managed by SBI Asset Management, a subsidiary of SBI Global Asset Management, as JX on Solana.
DigiFT CEO is rather old, but very smart. It is actually genius. Thanks to Ondo, the number one market share in the U.S. tokenized stock market, holding about 50%. This entity is another entity that we should cover. Utilizing JPYSC for settlement and as collateral on Ondo, we have reached basic agreement already and a s to Solana Foundation, it is a foundation, but i n the real-world asset market, they are dominant, very fast-moving, and very cheap in gas price. So compared to Ethereum, this is even much more effective, efficient, and they are used more than Ethereum.
So Joint venture, in July, we announced about SBI Solana Global. Services for institutional investors and next-generation payment infrastructure are in the picture. More recently, the Nikkei newspaper had an article about this partnership with BlackRock, that is to promote initiatives related to tokenized MMFs tradable using JPYSC. It is actually a big news but w e have the technological infrastructure and regulatory issues and so on, and we are talking about BlackRock, the largest asset management company, and we are going to strengthen the partnership with them.
Promoting the distribution of JPYSC both at home and abroad. So it is not public distribution yet, which should happen sooner than later. And we have asked that the government for early application of tax measures for JPY-denominated trust-type stablecoins for public distribution. Currently, when there is a change in beneficiary, the trustee submits those statements. And as the stablecoins circulate among an unspecified large number of users, the trustee cannot identify beneficiaries' names or changes in beneficiaries.
So the request is about measures such as eliminating the requirement to submit the above statement to enable public distribution. If it is delayed, because in the U.S., the GENIUS Act, that was enacted already, and it will take effect in January 2027. So in Singapore, we need to do more. For Japan, I want to do something, b ut the Japanese government administration are dragging my legs. In many cases, for about 26 years, I have been fighting with the establishment. They are saying maybe in August. No way.
For the public distribution, that should happen on January 1st, and I made a very strong request to the government about it. SBI Startale Marketing, the SMFG is going to, well, actually has 5% in SBI Startale Marketing. We sold 5% of SBI Startale Marketing to them and t his is rather an old story, and SMFG was saying that they are going to do something with the other two major mega banks. Maybe SMFG didn't want to tie up with something other than the mega banks. So it took so much time for them to make a decision, so I made a telephone call to Nakashima-san, saying that the valuation is going up, "What are you doing?" And they decided to take 5%.
Nakashima-san said, "Is that the situation? Sorry." Because he understands very quickly. So, it happens in our group that the managers do not do what the subordinates want them to do, and that leads to the making big mistakes. It happens often. So t he message is that you have to act quickly. That's the most important thing. If you can't move quickly, you will be loser, especially in this world and s ometimes things are delayed or not pinpointed. I always look ahead, and then I make the instructions, but the people do not move, and then there should be some changes in the personnel, the deployment.
Now, the participating in Open Standard, which promotes the USD-denominated stablecoin, OpenUSD, considering interoperability connecting the yen and the dollar. This is a must. Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock, Coinbase, more than 140 companies participate, so you need to be on board. And we have decided to participate in Open Standard. So domestically, the Ripple USD and both USD-denominated and JPY-denominated and n ow, once interoperability globally, that's what we would like to do next.
So with Korea, our neighbor. In the Kyobo Life Insurance, I am the Director, and we have 20% stake in the entity. We need to have partnerships with Korean entities with Everspin, SBI Everspin, which will go public and i t's another element for partnership. And the Shinhan, we have a very close relationship. In this area, we need to expand relationship. So striving to make a JPY-denominated stablecoin also recognized in the U.S. The other day, I saw with the Chairman who was engaged in lobbying activities.
In the U.S., when we want to achieve something in the U.S., the most reasonable approach is to do lobbying. That's what we are going to do. A pass is also open for foreign issuers to circulate stablecoins in the U.S. if they meet the following three conditions. One of them is regulatory equivalence, equivalent to the GENIUS Act. The judgment call is made by U.S. Department of the Treasury determines with Mr. Bessent. I met him many times, and maybe this is the time that we go ask to him.
For that, we need to hire lobbyist, which could be very expensive, and we decided to hire this lobbyist. As to registration with the OCC, you should register with the OCC and become subject to reporting and examinations. It is kind of troublesome because everything will be the subject to reporting and examinations. It could take a lot of time. So we need to give due consideration to these issues. And as to reserve assets in the U.S., you should hold reserve assets at the U.S. financial institutions sufficient for redemptions to U.S. users.
Well, it is a matter of course, but to what extent the market grows, depending on that prospect, you need to have a quite considerable amount of money dormant for some time. So from different aspects, we need to look at this issue. From Japan, internationalization of the yen will be accelerated, and for that, this is going to be a very important step. The fourth mega bank concept led by SBI Shinsei Bank as a platform provider is making steady progress. Building robust collaboration framework with regional banks with SBI Shinsei Bank at the core. Promoting SBI Shinsei Bank's transformation into digital bank in anticipation of the on-chain shift of finance. As you can see here, fourth mega bank concept.
So p erhaps it is easier to share with you a concrete example. We have SBI Shinsei Bank, and of course, we have the Shimane Bank and the Fukushima Bank. Those two banks will be umbrellaed underneath the Shinsei Bank. It would be an equity method affiliate. For Shimane Bank, we would have the third party allotment. JPY 10 billion, that is the total amount of the investment. Also, it does not have the voting rights. It is a preferred shares with no voting rights. Our objective here is really not to dominate or control some banks. That is not our intention. Right from the start, as we have been engaging in the redevelopment, regeneration of the regional, the parts of Japan.
So without the revitalization of the regional parts of Japan, the growth of Japan would not be realized. So w here there is a system, weak system, we can provide the core banking system. We like the system to make sure every bank could grow and all could be changed to a cloud system, or perhaps the regional economy is getting weaker and t here would be no potential borrowers, and the deposit would not grow. So there are some issues facing the regional, the financial institutions.
So we have been engaging in addressing this issue from quite an early phase. The regional banks, they should change from being a regional bank to nationwide bank. So we started from scratch, so w e actually divested already, but it is part of Docomo's banks, and the entity that we have divested. And a fter seven years, it has developed into a fairly highly profitable company. That is possible. We are giving various guidance. Also, in terms of structured products.
So these shows the track record of the structured products. SBI Shinsei Bank, So they structure various products and t hey would sell those, or they give those to the regional banks, and they can generate the yield using these new products. Or the regional syndicate the loan. So as we engage in large-scale projects, the regional banks could participate. So there are 58 regional financial companies, and about 60 or so, we have been able to have a syndicated loan or structured finance. So these are the opportunities we continue to give to the regional financial institutions.
Now the various collaboration that we have been able to realize in various forms. We talked about the next-generation banking system already that has been introduced to six financial institutions. Also, Fukushima Bank. It has become much more sophisticated. Various, the person in charge of the IT system, they have been visiting the heads of banks, and they have been conducting a thorough explanation in Fukushima and Shimane, so s eeing is believing. Seeing how rational the system is, that would actually create the belief.
And also collaborative lending, we are actually conducting those with banks. Also, personnel exchanges that has been conducted since 2022, started with 32 entities, and now we have accepted 64 trainees. So in various areas. So o f course, there is a lot of requests related to the virtual currency, or so-called next-generation financial products. There has been a lot of requests from the financial institutions requesting our assistance. And next is the promoting SBI Shinsei Bank's transformation into digital bank in anticipation of the on-chain shift of finance.
So SBI Shinsei Bank, just by acquiring, just the happiest acquisition, they would not be able to grow, so w e have to change those into a digital ban and that is the focus point going forward. In order to realize that, the SBI Shinsei Trust and Banking will be the core of the SBI Group's digital finance domainm so w e would like to enhance their functionality. The SBI Group's overseas alliance and MSD's insights could be utilized to further evolve. So in the U.S., for instance, so in the company Moves example, they are able to provide its customers, small financial institutions, with functions such as acceptance and settlement or stablecoin payments and real-time funding.
So these next-generation functionalities should be provided. So up until now, sort of the old school, the TradFi functionalities, that is the old school, the online functionalities. So w e need to change the bank into a new digital bank that can provide various new functionalities, as that is the SBI Shinsei Bank, as well as the Trust and Banking Bank. So d igitalization is essential, so we need to expedite our effort. SBI Shinsei Bank would evolve as the digital bank, and by providing the on-chain financial function to the regional financial institutions and the fourth mega bank concept will advance to the next stage.
So in the next phase, as somewhat we anticipate, the year-end financial results, you can only hear from me, only at the year-end, the financial results. So in terms of the SBI Shinsei Trust and Banking, as the core of the digital finance domain, we will continue to expand, so t hat is why I will merge with SBI Clearing Trust. So the stablecoin will be issued here., so t hat is yen-denominated, of course. We have diverse financial infrastructure functionalities, custody, that is included.
Also, I would like to utilize the SBI Group's overseas alliance and insights for further evolution. So as mentioned, there has been an increase in investment towards the U.S. Why? This is one of the example, that is embedded finance type of example. So-called embedded finance, and the company is called U.S.-based Cross River Bank. We have agreed in principle on a partnership with them. CRB Group, we have a partnership with the parent company. They are based in New Jersey. They have the settlement function that is stemming from AI agents, so t hey called it agentic commerce. That is a new concept.
So I would like to promote this more to SBI Shinsei Trust and Banking, as well as SBI Shinsei. So w e need to collaborate with AI and the APAC companies. I have been stressing the importance within the APAC companies as well. So in terms of JPYSC on-chain function, so we talked about CRB. So they would use the Cross River Bank's platform to provide the service. So the cross-border, that is actually related to Mr. Elon Musk. So this is another bank, Erebor Bank. Mr. Palmer Luckey, he is the founder. He is one of the founder. He is a founder of Anduril. So for instance, missiles, the design of the missiles are provided. Also various defense-related equipment have been developed.
Again, another genius. It just so happens that when President Trump visited, I had the honor to sit at the main table. So the same table as Mr. Trump, and I had the opportunity to speak to a lot of people and a lso, actually, Mr. Luckey was seated right next to me, and I felt that he was a very interesting gentleman and I received an email recently, and he invited me to invest in this bank. So February 2026, they have acquired the approval of the banks. It is only been after eight months since the establishment, they have been able to collect deposit amount of USD 7 billion, but o f course, there is a shortage of capital, so that is why they have asked me, asked us for an investment, so t hat was quite a referral that we received.
They have AI, defense, aerospace, the vessel. Quite a very advanced manufacturing, and that is linked to the crypto-assets. So they have major customers as part of this bank, so w e can really, for some sort of a partnership collaboration, and that would be very important. So i n the U.S., if I were to pick a couple of Actually, I intend to pick a couple of our very talented individuals so we can dispatch them to the U.S., or perhaps we can convene them from outside. Otherwise, we will not be able to catch up to the different insights that is available. Next is the integration of the Asset Management Business and insurance business.
Zero Revolution and the securities business. I think this is as valuable. It is quite a grand revolution that we intend to conduct. So I would like to make an explanation one by one. First of all, the SBI Insurance Group will be under the umbrella of SBI Global Asset Management. They are both public companies. SBI Global Asset Management would be the surviving company, so it will be dissolved, the merger, so t hat is the ratio. They will continue to be listed on the prime market. So disclosing of the loading premiums, so we like to change the conventional wisdom of the insurance industry. So the premiums, you may wonder what exactly was the cost structure, so w hat sort of premiums?
Actually, it was all hidden in terms of the loading premiums and the general structure. So this particular person's working for a foreign capital firm. So they've been pressured from the U.S. that Japan should also disclose the cost structure, because in the U.S., if we did not disclose those, we could be sued. That is how serious this is. However, in Japan, nobody sees that as an issue. So what would happen? What would arise from there? All the insurance premiums are extremely expensive. Also, the life insurance companies, they should engage in asset management.
So they are not able to strengthen that because they were relying so much on the premiums. I think that is a possibility. So quite from an early phase, since I established a life insurance company, I have been voicing this as a necessity. However, back then, we were late in the game in terms of the insurance business, and we were small scale. so I deemed that we cannot actually compete in this "war". We wanted to wait until we have built up our strengths. Change the customs in the insurance industry.
So since we announced this, it's been a lot of complaints, and perhaps from the FSA as well. Asakura-san, he made an explanation to the FSA. Also, I believe he is addressing the industry as well, or maybe they're doing that at the SBI Insurance Group. So t here's been a lot of halation, shall we say, a lot of impacts that we're seeing in terms of the cost, the personal expenses, and maybe the commissions maybe are passed on to the premium. That is a big question. We're not sure if it is the case, but in any case, the premiums are extremely expensive.
Also, what has been really problematic is the face-to-face agency-based sales channel. So the sales network itself, that may be driving up the cost. If you can do that online, that would significantly lower the price. So if you were to change to direct sales, we can actually make into industry's lowest level of premiums and a lso, we have the income from the asset management, and also with making the operation more efficient, we can drive down the premiums. That is the kind of competitive climate we can generate. Transparency is important.
We are always putting the customer in the center, and also valuing the investors or to the beneficiaries as well. So we have been pursuing this customer-centric principle all along, so w e like to implement in this particular field. So we conducted zero commissions for the securities. Then some of the large-scale securities firm, they may have lowered the commission, but they haven't made those into zero. I'm not quite sure whether they're able to provide valuable advice, but in the end, that is bringing high revenue for those large-scale brokerage firms. So if you really do value the investors, you should make the commissions zero, b ut they would say, "No, no, we have to pay the salesman. We need to give them high salaries."
That is exactly the same argument as conducting the face-to-face agency network. Because you continue with the face-to-face agency channel, that is why they are facing various issues. That is true for Sony Life and the foreign capital, the insurers. That is definitely happening. What would you do? So our investment trust is overwhelmingly low-priced, because Zero-Kan, as we talked about, start with Zero-Kan, and once you are over the age of 18, it will be All-Kan, all country. So again, very low price.
So we continue to be close and be of value to the customers, and the outcome of that is shown as that. Disclosing the loading premiums, so we can change the common practice. And of course, from the consumer's point of view, now they can appreciate, understand the cost structures of the premiums, and they can choose accordingly. Also, we could have a healthy competitive climate within the industry. And for SBI Group, we would like to rebuild the operation with AI, and the fruits, the returns, could return the benefits to the policyholders.
So who is right here? Which side? If it is just making money on one side, maybe they will not really focus on the other side. So basically, their asset management capability would become poor, so w e need to change that. So it is very essential for insurance companies to enhance their asset management capabilities. We need to realize, in Japan, the investment multiplied by insurance model, investment times insurance model. So making the commissions zero, because we have engaged in this initiative.
So if you look at the household financial assets as of March end of 2023, 54.2% was the cash and deposits. But now this move from savings to investment, that percentage has come down to 44.9%. Now i n terms of the investment trusts and equities and so forth, conversely, it is actually increased from 16.7% to 28.5%. And finally, for the insurance and pensions. So rather than complaining, you still have 44.9% in the cash and deposits. So we need to have more variable annuities, for instance. So y ou could have various new types of insurance products. So we can further drive from deposits and savings movement, so t here is nothing to complain about.
So you can just change your investment management, the structure. That is the argument here, so Buffett model, and of course, Berkshire Hathaway, they have been basically using the premiums into investment. Likewise, Brookfield, and so that is May 2022, multiplied by American National. So asically, they acquired American Insurance Company, KKR, a private equity fund. They made a Global Atlantic, a U.S. life and annuity insurer, a wholly owned subsidiary, Apollo, a global management. Again, this is a major alternative asset manager. They made Athene Holdings, a U.S. annuity insurer, as a subsidiary. That is a global trend, so w e should not lag behind a nd that is what the Japanese insurance company should engage in.
So with the integrated operation of the investment in insurance, we can return the fruits to the policyholders and beneficiaries, so w e need to drive this, so w e need to start with our own selves. We change our organization structure, and we intend to continuously do so. Investment times insurance as the growth engine. So by 2030, the AUM of JPY 50 trillion would be pursued, so t hat is SBI Global Asset Management Group's AUM. So as of end of March 2027, it would be from JPY 14 trillion- JPY 20 trillion, and it will further grow to JPY 50 trillion. The drivers are managing the group's insurance assets, M&A of insurance companies, and joint venture with major overseas firms. So through these various initiatives, we intend to realize this big target.
Now, toward the realization of Neo-Media Concept, we are strongly promoting the building of a business foundation. So I started to do this, and I completely understood something. In this industry, you have to acquire IPs, intellectual properties. The IPs, intellectual properties, they are really the most important thing in this industry. You need to acquire IP, create IPs, and develop IPs. S such diverse initiatives would have to be promoted. That's what we need to do. That's what I felt.
So the IP investment, IP creation, development functions will be expanded, and we'd also expand the IP creation development platform. So there would be IP creation support model to be built in Japan. I'd like to start from here. There are issues, challenges faced by the Japanese IP industry, but they would be addressed by this model, I think. First, the mechanism to continually create the IPs would have to be in place. So Mr. Yasushi Akimoto is like the savior. I think he's really the genius in this world.
For 50 years, I've been in this financial industry for 50 years, but Akimoto-san, he's been in this entertainment industry for 50 years. He's been surviving and winning, so h e's really the great warrior, a great fighter. In that regard, I truly respect him. And to this person, I would like to ask to lead this content innovation to continue to discover and develop IPs that can succeed globally. So first, in various different IP areas, the professionals, the experts would be selected and appointed.
So there would be auditions and competitions. We think we should invite a lot of general people to come to the auditions because everything starts from such operations, so w e should start from there. We should come up with various plans and discover creators. So if we let Akimoto-san do his job, I'm sure he will do a good job and t hen the overseas extension. What I found out later was that in Jakarta, Akimoto-san made something like the localized version of AKB48, something like JKT48, and there's one in Bangkok as well and I'm thinking about compiling all these to be listed at Nasdaq, so a ll those rights and IPs were researched. So we should not just limit ourselves to Japan and list ourselves in the small market.
Our group would be bringing everything to the U.S. market. If we drag along, the U.S. movement pace is really fast, so we would be behind. That's one thing. And with Akimoto-san and the team, I would like them to get listed and would pass over before stock option. Everything came out of Akimoto-san. So I would have Akimoto-san to be in charge of all those things, and the stock options will be held by other directors too. All those directors at our company, they are coming from SBI, will not be getting anything. They have already been paid well enough.
At SBI Holdings, they have already been gaining enough value from the stock option. Rather than that, they should themselves do more, think more, as I have been doing, take an initiative by themselves. Otherwise, everything that has been built so far can be collapsing instantly like a sandcastle. The brain, what Mr. Son was often saying was that you need to think and think and think until your brain would bleed. I think it is correct. I am doing that every day with only four hours sleep.
So you need to be as passionate as that, and doing the business for the people, for the society. If you are not passionate enough like that, they should leave our group. So even the young people, I am going to take them in to commission them as the presidents of each company. I am increasing the young leaders very much. So whether that person has the passion or not is the most important thing here. Mr. Konosuke Matsushita said in the book called "The Conditions for Leaders" as such. I think there were 112 conditions for the leaders, and every single one of them would have to be there. None of them could be zero. But the leader would have to have much more than anyone else is the passion, he said.
Yeah, that is what Mr. Matsushita said, and I think he is completely right. So now, the Neo-Media Ecosystem, we have about 40 companies in collaboration. Neo Content Fund, we have about JPY 100 billion gathered, and now we have JPY 12.5 billion, the governmental money in there too. There are our alliances too, with FMH, Fuji Media Holdings, and Yoshimoto Kogyo. We are formulating joint measures as such, and it is increasing. Overseas too, where was that? I need to check. But we formulated alliance. We are hoping to formulate an alliance, and there was some French person coming to approach me, but a nyway, including all those things, we would like to extend the alliance globally much more than what we have now.
The IP investment and IP creation development functions expansions. Now, we have 40 companies in movies, games, music, books, artists. We have various different functionality that has been enriched with more IP creation capabilities. Neo Content Fund, now it is JPY 100 billion, plus that there is Cool Japan- SBI Content Investment of JPY 12.5 billion. With the total of this money, 400 companies were listed out, and we already interviewed about 150 companies, and out of which, over 10 promising candidates were decided to be invested in. I am meeting every single one of them. I need to check with my own eyes. Aside from Akimoto-san, I do not trust anyone else.
In this investment world, that is. The Neo-Media Ecosystem has already built an IP creation and development platform through investments. Some of the examples are shown here. All of these are very good companies, I think. Then expanding the IP creation and development platform through partnerships with leading companies. One example, Yoshimoto Kogyo Alliance. I think this is going to become very interesting. The joint venture will be created, and the Neo Content Fund is utilized so that our network in and out of Japan can be utilized so as to maximize the IP value and w e are also going to do the regional revitalization.
Yoshimoto Kogyo is doing a lot of business in those regional areas as well. I think there will be a lot of interesting initiatives there. As for Fuji Media Holdings Alliance, there were various different things, but now we have settled to formulate a joint venture, and we'd like to be mutually having good results, win-win for both. So as a first step in the real media area, we decided to formulate a joint venture. As a holding company, in each one of the business areas, there will be subsidiaries to be set up. The first one is the idol-related business.
Akimoto-san is really good at this area, of course. He's an expert. And so by introducing such experts' insights, we'd like to make this joint venture the best thing in the world. And thinking to the global expansion, the large-sized visual contents co-creation, and the co-study of the content finance, and others. So t his is the first example, the first attempt, fan platform to be created. So I have great expectations on this. In fact, Fuji Television has a great network in entertainment, and those programs, their production capability, and the slot securing capability, I think they are very good at this, so we can do well here too.
With the Culture Entertainment Group, we are going to do this joint film project competition for the future of Japanese movies. I think they have a very good tagline to create this together. So w e are going to develop the contents starting from Japan together with them. And then as I've been saying from before, I really needed to do this, to build a fair, impartial, and global information platform. We took Livedoor in to make this a wholly owned subsidiary of ours. I'd like to change a lot of the conventional ways.
Livedoor News is the Japan's largest general news site, and they also have the Livedoor Blog. They have about 100 million monthly users, and the social media followers are over 30 million. Because there's already such a platform, how can we expand this further or grow this? By putting in more personnel, I think we can do more. We can grow more and m ore than anything else, I'm pushing this AI utilizing information guarantee to make it fair and just. So w e are going to do the fact check and everything utilizing AI and t he global information platform is what I'm striving to make this into.
So there would be real physical events to be conducted, and we'd like to create new touchpoints with the customers, clients. This SBI MUSIC CIRCUS and the fireworks event, Kondo-san, who is the Vice Chairman, is really eager to work on these things. This MUSIC CIRCUS, we did this SBI Mai Hanabi first, and we introduced drones, and we did a show. It's completely different from the conventional fireworks event with those drones flying around. So you draw such picture. The future starts from SBI all the time with 4,000 drones., so i t was a tremendous drone show. At Expo, there was 3,000 drones used, but this is even bigger than that Expo level, so everyone was really surprised by this.
I would also like to introduce robots. If someone dances and sings, robots would also be performing as the back dancers. With 10 robots, I think it would be impactful. Maybe not as big as 100 robots, but maybe 10 and t he Tokyo Girls Collection, TGC, so-called TGC. This is also impactful event, especially in the regional cities. There are a lot of cities who are inviting this show. Some say, "Kitao-san, you are related to this, right?" And some of the regional bank heads, presidents are asking me to come over to do this show. The other day, there was event held in Ehime City, and it was really popular.
So it is Japan's largest fashion event. The cumulative number of participants, including virtual participants, it was 8 million+ people. I need to go to this really soon, and I am going, but in November, this month, this is going to be held. The Formula 1 World Championship Las Vegas Grand Prix, we are going to sponsor this. And with a certain American financial institution that I am close to, with about 20, inviting those 20 heads of the banks, this F1 race is going to be held in Las Vegas.
So at the time with boxer Naoya Inoue, I had never heard of boxing or never went to see boxing, but ever since Inoue match, I am taking interest in boxing matches. If there were to be anyone who is going to do the sponsorship, who should be the best? I am wondering that, and I am now watching the boxing too. Now, there will be two more matches by Inoue, and I think he is going to win both.
Now there is Las Vegas Grand Prix. It is the city integrated entertainment. I mentioned this at the presentation once before, but I think it is really going to be a great city entertainment. So, there is going to be global enthusiasm and global business touchpoints, both to be gained and t here will be a lot of exposure in various different old media as well. I mean Sphere. I meant Sphere. There would be Sphere. It is about two hours. So TV crews, you can go home and now a fter that, I would be receiving questions from the audience. Please raise that at the Q&A.