From little Acoms.EARLIER this year we chatted with the president of Acom, the consumer loan company that continues its inexorable march into the lives of everyday Japanese. The company's old facade facade (fəsäd`), exterior face or wall of a building. The term implies ordered placement of its openings and other features and thus seems inapplicable to a wall without design. as little more than a jumped-up loan sharking Loan Sharking When a borrower is charged interest above an established legal rate. Depending on where you live, lenders typically cannot charge more than 60% interest per annum. Notes: For example, I lend you $10,000 today and you must pay me back $20,000 within 30 days. operation had been painstakingly pains·tak·ing adj. Marked by or requiring great pains; very careful and diligent. See Synonyms at meticulous. n. Extremely careful and diligent work or effort. scraped off, leaving instead a glitzy glitz Informal n. Ostentatious showiness; flashiness: "a garish barrage of show-biz glitz" Peter G. Davis. tr.v. , well-oiled outfit that looks like it has a serious business plan. Whether or not that business plan is good for society is another matter: The company appeared most interested in dishing out loans to sections of society that are, on average, higher credit risks. So it really did seem a groundbreaking moment when the conservative Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group (MTFG MTFG Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group ) decided to tie-up with little Acom. As well as demonstrating a new appetite for riskier business lines, the dramatic shift to consumer loans is seen by most observers as a clear admission by MTFG that it may be a while before the corporate loan business returns to profitability. Japanese bank lending has tumbled every month for over six years, while the total lending balance of Japan's consumer credit firms is estimated at more than [yen]10 trillion. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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