GMO to book 3 bil. yen in compensation for customers hit by cyberattack

GMO Internet Group Inc. will recognize approximately 3.05 billion yen in losses during the October-December quarter, according to a report on Friday. These losses stem from compensation and goodwill payments to customers following a cyberattack on the company's subsidiary earlier this year. The majority of the funds – 3 billion yen – will be allocated for compensation to users who encountered unauthorized transactions in their foreign exchange trading accounts.

An additional 54 million yen will serve as goodwill for all customers. GMO Internet Group's Chief Financial Officer, Masashi Yasuda, expressed deep regret over the incident, emphasizing that the repercussions on customer trust and society surpassed the financial implications. As of Thursday, the company had received compensation claims from 2,943 accounts, totaling 2.99 billion yen.

GMO holds insurance coverage for up to 1.1 billion yen and is now investigating its applicability to the current situation. In October, GMO disclosed that unauthorized access and transactions had been detected on its Onamae.com Desktop Cloud service. Subsequently, attackers leaked information about an account holder online after the company declined a ransom demand, before the service was dismantled.

In the January-September period, GMO reported a net profit of 17.98 billion yen, marking a 27.1 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Operating profit surged 19.5 percent to 52.79 billion yen, while sales expanded 13.0 percent to 241.16 billion yen. However, the company declined to provide its earnings forecast for 2026, citing challenges in predicting the impact of market fluctuations on its earnings.