TOKYO (March 18): The head of Japan's banking lobby took the rare step of apologising for a series of system failures at Mizuho Financial Group Inc on Thursday, highlighting how the lender's inability to fix chronic IT problems has unsettled the industry.

Mizuho, Japan's third-largest bank by assets, has suffered four system glitches in recent weeks, including one that hit more than 4,000 ATMs and resulted in them failing to give back cash cards and passbooks.