Japanese financial services company
Saison Card logo
Credit Saison Co., Ltd.
(
株式?社クレディセゾン
,
Kabushiki-gaisha Kuredi Sezon
)
, commonly known as
Credit Saison
(
クレディセゾン
,
Kuredi Sezon
)
or simply
Saison
(
セゾン
,
Sezon
)
, is a Japanese
financial services
company affiliated to
Mizuho Financial Group
. Founded in 1951, Credit Saison is the 3rd largest
credit card
issuer with over 20 million cardholders in Japan, behind
JCB
and
Visa Japan
.
History
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]
Credit Saison was founded in 1946 as
Midoriya
(
?屋
)
by Torajiro Okamoto. It was originally an operator of
department stores
specialized in installment selling.
Seibu Retailing Group, one of the (now former) subsidiaries of
Seibu Railway
, purchased Midoriya in 1976, attempting to add financial services to its portfolio of customer services. Midoriya's retailing division was transferred to
Seibu Department Stores
, and Midoriya itself was renamed
Seibu Credit
(
西武クレジット
,
Seibu Kurejitto
)
retaining the
credit
management division.
Seibu Railway spun off Seibu Retailing in 1983 and Seibu Retailing was rebranded as Saison Group. Seibu Credit issued the first Saison Card in 1983. Seibu Credit finally rebranded itself as
Credit Saison
in 1989, standing as one of the
Big Five
core businesses of Saison Group.
Following the collapse of the
Japanese asset price bubble
in the 1990s, Saison Group fell into financial difficulties. The group's longtime president
Seiji Tsutsumi
was expelled from management in 1991. The group's creditors including
Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank
and
Industrial Bank of Japan
(now part of
Mizuho Financial
) pressed the group to restructure its business. Credit Saison parted from other retailers of Saison Group, and formed an alliance with Mizuho in early 2000s.
Saison Card
[
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]
Credit Saison issues credit cards
Saison Card
(
セゾンカ?ド
,
Sezon K?do
)
branded
Visa
,
Mastercard
,
JCB
, or
American Express
.
For their history, many cards are used by customers of former Seibu Railway group companies and Seibu Retailing Group companies including
Seibu Railway
,
Seiyu
,
Parco
, and
MUJI
.
Sogo & Seibu
was acquired by
Seven & I
and left the group, but Credit Saison and Seven & I founded a joint company and issued Saison Card.
As a Mizuho financial group company,
Mizuho Bank
and many other banks issue cashcard/Saison Card joint card.
Credi Saison also has issues for many other non-group companies.
Annual fees of Saison Card are free for normal cards, 1,575 yen to 3,150 yen for some cards, and 10,500 yen or more for gold or platinum cards.
Volume of new contracts
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]
As of March 30, 2006:
- Credit card-related shopping services: ¥ 2,527,808 million JPY
- Agency services: ¥ 747,998 million JPY
- Cash advances: ¥ 618,921 million JPY
- Specialty loans: ¥ 120,117 million JPY
- Leases: ¥ 90,011 million JPY
References
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]
External links
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]