The Financial Services Agency has begun an on-site inspection of Sony Financial Group, the parent of Sony Life Insurance, over money that employees improperly took from customers. The agency had already been inspecting Sony Life since September.
Multiple former sales employees at Sony Life obtained more than ¥180 million in total from customers, in part by pitching them investment opportunities, the company has disclosed.
According to people familiar with the matter, the agency judged it needed to examine whether the parent's oversight and its sharing of information with Sony Life were adequate. The inspection of Sony Financial Group began on the 4th.
The agency plans to issue an administrative penalty, such as a business improvement order, depending on what the inspection finds.
From subsidiary to parent
The case centers on money taken from customers by staff at the insurer itself. The inspection now reaches the group that sets the controls the insurer is meant to follow.
The agency has not said what, if anything, it has found at the parent level. Its decision to widen the inspection to Sony Financial Group rests on the question of group-wide management, not on a finding against the parent.