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India is experiencing remarkable demographic and economic growth. The country has many appealing qualities, including its abundance of talented IT workers and designation of English as an associate official language. For these reasons, more companies are choosing India when it comes to operational processing and IT system development for overseas offices. At Mizuho, we established Mizuho Global Services India ("MGS") in March 2020. As an offshore hub for global trade operations and other services, MGS offers support across different countries and regions. Through its practice of being a fountain of talent and technology, it aims to boost productivity across the entire Mizuho group by securing India's best IT professionals and utilizing AI and other digital technologies.

Above: Staff from the Tokyo Head Office (departments including the Global Corporate Function Coordination Department) and offices in Singapore made a joint visit to the Mumbai Principal Office.
Below: A ceremony held to commemorate the opening of the Chennai Branch.

Turning India into an offshore hub for trade operations
Mizuho is enhancing productivity on a global level

Mizuho's activities are not restricted to Asia. We have expanded our network throughout the Americas, Europe, and the rest of the world in order to provide meticulous service and support to our clients in each region. This expansion has led to an increase in operational processing related to global trade and other activities. At the same time, we have been looking to enhance our transaction banking services and secure talent to help deal with regulatory compliance, renewal of core IT systems, and other major challenges. Accordingly, we began to develop global hubs to handle the huge increase in such operational processing and back office work. In March 2020, we established MGS in India, a country enjoying one of the fastest growth rates in Asia.

MGS has recruited local staff with robust English language skills to handle operations vital to transactions with clients, such as trade documentation checks, credit rating reviews, and robotic process automation (RPA) development and maintenance. Because of this, MGS has been able to offer support to offices throughout the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and in locations like New York and London. When it was established in 2020, it represented the first move by a Japanese megabank to create a hub for centralizing work from across different regions. By single-handedly taking on this work, MGS is helping Mizuho's entire global network take steps like optimizing cost efficiency, securing lender resources, and improving operational efficiency.

In addition, MGS is proactively utilizing India's considerable IT talent to introduce cutting-edge technologies. One specific example involves the usage of AI-OCR to automate trade operations. AI-OCR is an advanced technology that combines AI with optical character recognition (OCR). The technology can handle a more diverse range of formats while significantly enhancing the accuracy of layout analysis. The format and contents of trade documentation vary widely from client to client, and the adoption of AI-OCR has allowed MGS to greatly improve the efficiency of operational tasks that were previously handled only by individuals with specific experience or skills. In this way, aside from carrying out operational tasks for others, MGS has developed major strengths in propelling the adoption of new technology. By promoting utilization of technology as a global operational hub, MGS is helping Mizuho realize our vision of running operations efficiently enough that 70 or so employees can carry out tasks once performed by 100 people.

Mumbai, home to Mizuho's principal office in India

India: A land with an abundance of IT talent and cutting-edge technologies

So why did Mizuho set up MGS in India? There are actually several reasons.

With a population of over 1.4 billion people, India has topped China to become the most populous country in the world. Demographic growth has created a large population of younger people, and India's workforce has an average age of around 28. English is an associate official language, and the availability of English-speaking talent has helped drive development, particularly in the IT sector. The government has also launched a "Digital India" campaign and is building infrastructure to promote the utilization of digital technologies by domestic and foreign companies. These conditions have turned India into a global IT superpower, increasing its presence as a powerful player in the fields of software development and digital business.

MGS has offices in Mumbai and Chennai. In recent years, many global firms have established offshore development hubs known as Global Capability Centers in these two cities, and the market for IT outsourcing is growing year by year. The Indian government is promoting growth in the IT industry by rolling out 5G cellular infrastructure nationwide, developing smart cities, and further strengthening IT-related professional development programs. In these ways, India is striving to become an even more enticing destination for IT companies.

The appeal of a growing economy and a vibrant talent pool is unlikely to fade any time soon. Mizuho researched and considered numerous options when planning our global hub. In the end, India's many attractive qualities won the day, and we made the decision to establish MGS there.
 

The MGS office in Mumbai

Combining digital technology and human skills to support a variety of operations

MGS plays a crucial role in improving operational efficiency across the entirety of Mizuho's broad global network. The utilization of digital technology has been a major part of MGS performing and improving its functions. We already looked at the adoption of AI-OCR above, and MGS does not stop there. Based on the belief that technology is not the be all and end all, MGS strives to overcome challenges and hurdles by combining such technology with the capabilities of local staff.

One specific initiative has involved MGS revising workflows to accommodate the document reading accuracy of AI-OCR. The 4-eyes principle is applied to transactions for which AI-OCR is insufficiently accurate, with the transactions being reviewed by two people. For transactions where AI-OCR is more accurate, MGS is shifting to a 2-eyes system, with the transactions checked by AI-OCR and just one other person, in order to minimize human checking. The goal is to combine the efficiency of technology with the accuracy achieved by utilizing human skills.

MGS is also making full use of India's IT talent to actively engage in RPA development and maintenance. Through software, it can develop technology and maintain functions that automate routine work. For example, RPA can automate many repetitive manual operations, including data input, invoice processing, email dispatches, and information linkage between IT systems, leading to a decrease in human error and a dramatic increase in working speed. Furthermore, automation with more advanced judgement capabilities is possible by combining RPA with AI, an extremely useful tool for companies.

MGS is currently receiving RPA development and maintenance orders from offices around the world. Conditions were initially challenging. Support was thin on the ground, with many expressing concerns about MGS's capabilities compared to existing developers, especially considering India's remote location and time difference. However, MGS rose to the occasion. While carrying out prompt, detailed, and timely business communications, it established guidelines related to incident management, set actionable metrics, and formulated problem-solving plans. It also deployed full-time staff with extensive engineering experience and conducted periodic monthly reviews. In doing so, MGS gradually earned the trust of other offices and began to receive a variety of projects, handling over 240 RPA development and maintenance projects to date. These have helped to eliminate over 6,000 working hours. MGS is now engaged in over 200 projects, with orders from 15 countries, principally in Asia but also including the United States, Europe, and Australia. In this way, it continues to take on challenges and serve as a central node in Mizuho's efforts to improve operational efficiency across our global network.

Staff from the Tokyo Head Office (Global Corporate Function Coordination Department) hold up the Izumeter sign.

MGS aims to grow further while building trust through ties between India and Japan

MGS currently employs around 300 Indian staff and plans to grow even further. Based on its achievements to date, it is aiming to build up its workforce to around 1,000 by the end of FY2027. It is also looking into hiring new graduates as it seeks to continue expanding. Having developed against a backdrop of strong relations and mutual trust between India and Japan, MGS has adopted the practice of being a fountain of talent and technology between the two countries. The word "fountain" symbolizes India's strength as a major power whose business environment and technologies have given rise to a wealth of highly skilled professionals. It also signals MGS's intention to grow sustainably while making full use of the talented personnel and technological capabilities that spring up like fountains. The Japanese word for "fountain" is "izumi", used in a variety of situations to emphasize commitment to growth. One example at MGS is "Izumeter", a neologism used in-house when announcing the latest employee numbers. The company continues to work together as one to grow further, as staff comments testify. "I strive each day to help the company reach its targets, and I use all my new learning and experience to contribute to my own personal growth," says one employee. "The team's cooperative attitude and support from management and Head Office have given me a lot of confidence in my leadership abilities and the motivation to keep pushing forward," adds another. Mizuho's Purpose is "Proactively innovate together with our clients for a prosperous and sustainable future". MGS embodies these words and this culture on a global stage. Going forward, it will boost productivity across Mizuho's global network even further by strengthening ties between India and Japan.

Text and photographs: Mizuho DX Editorial Department

 

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