An inside view of a Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank branch in Osaka (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
When Japan’s Honda Motor Co. Ltd. stopped using Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Ltd. as its stock transfer agent last year, the lender slapped it with a roughly $4 million termination fee, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The break fee 2,000 yen ($19) per shareholder is a little-known practice among Japan’s biggest trust banks when they lose a client in the shareholder record-keeping business, multiple insiders say.
The bank that takes the new client typically pays the fee. Insiders say this arrangement keeps a profitable business in the hands of a few big trust banks because newcomers balk at the cost. One departing client was told the charge was an “industry custom.”
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