Business Results
During the year ended March 31, 2004, total income increased ¥5,891 million over the previous fiscal year to ¥91,028 million. The increase was primarily attributable to growth in interest income, which reflected increased investment in securities, and higher income due to an increase in fees and commissions.
 
Net income increased ¥3,957 million year-on-year to ¥6,278 million, due in part to an extraordinary gain on the transfer of the entrusted portion (daikohenjo) of the retirement benefit obligation.
 
In the First Management Plan of the New Century, the medium-term management plan we implemented for the three years starting in April 2001, we stated our basic policies that a business can thrive only with the support of customers and of speeding up business operations by decentralizing management through delegation of authority. Our guideline for action was the participation of all employees in Marketing and Public Relations. Based on these policies and guideline, we have worked to strengthen our earnings capabilities and grow together with the people in the region.
 
During this period, we also started a new management structure centered on the regional headquarters system and introduced a new personnel system. Through these and other measures, our specialized banking professionals worked to respond quickly and accurately to the needs of customers and provide high-value-added services.

Start of the Second Management Plan of the New Century
Aiming to become a bank that customers truly rely on and that develops with the people in our operating region, Hyakugo Bank began the Second Management Plan of the New Century, our new management plan, in April 2004. In this plan, our action guideline will be “Frontier Banking,” the new corporate statement we adopted last year, the 125th anniversary of the Bank’s founding, targeting the achievement of “Three Frontiers” and “Five Foundations.”
 
We implemented new measures to strengthen legal compliance and risk management structures, while continuing our wide-ranging activities in these areas. Furthermore, we view Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which has recently been a focus of attention, as corporate activities that meet the trust placed in us by society, and believe that this has been the very nature of the Bank’s management up to now.
 
In addition to launching the new management plan, we will continue working to increase the level of satisfaction we deliver to Hyakugo Bank customers.
 


Hajimu Maeda
President