Mizuho management lacked awareness to shun anti-social forces-external panel

Mizuho Financial Group's <8411.T> management lacked the awareness of the gravity of collaborating with anti-social forces, an external panel of lawyers said on Monday.

The panel, appointed by Mizuho, reported its findings on how the bank failed for more than two years to end the loans to "yakuza" gangsters after discovering the shady transactions.

"It is highly regrettable that a bank that represents Japan was involved in such a problem and we cannot ignore the fact that such incidents were allowed to be carried on within the organization," the panel said in a report.

(Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Writing by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)