Imagine pouring your heart and soul into a new job, believing in the company's vision, only to have the rug pulled out from under you months later. That's the alleged reality for many employees of Jenius Bank, a digital banking arm of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC), as whispers of its impending closure grow louder. While Jenius and SMBC remain tight-lipped, a wave of former employees are speaking out, painting a picture of sudden layoffs and a company seemingly vanishing into thin air.
Despite the lack of an official announcement, the signs are hard to ignore. A flurry of LinkedIn posts from now-former Jenius employees on Thursday and Friday declared them “open to work,” while others hinted at receiving “tough” news from the digital bank. Further fueling the speculation, Jenius’ X (formerly Twitter) account vanished on Friday, and its LinkedIn page was scrubbed clean of all posts. It's like the digital equivalent of erasing a company from existence.
Two former employees, speaking anonymously, confirmed the layoffs, stating that Takeshi Okamoto, chair and CEO of SMBC Manubank (the legal entity behind Jenius), announced the shutdown during a virtual all-hands meeting on Thursday. The meeting, lasting a mere 10 minutes, reportedly outlined a stark choice: an email to personal accounts signaled termination, while a message to work accounts meant a temporary role on the transition team. But here's where it gets controversial... the execution seems to have been less than graceful. One employee described being abruptly locked out of Microsoft Teams and Outlook mid-meeting, while another lost access just two minutes after the announcement concluded.
Okamoto reportedly attributed the closure, at least in part, to “market performance,” citing the digital bank's lack of profitability and its inability to reach the parent company's desired profit margins quickly enough. This raises a crucial question: Was the market truly to blame, or were there deeper issues at play within Jenius itself?
One anonymous employee offered a candid assessment, suggesting a culture of “over promise, under deliver.” While acknowledging the hard work of many individuals, she implied a disconnect between ambitious goals and actual execution. “They just never got it right, to be quite honest,” she stated. “We all thought that the all-hands would be a trimming-the-fat kind of call, because we assumed [the bank] had not been hitting targets.” And this is the part most people miss... the difference between trimming the fat and outright shutting down is vast, suggesting a more fundamental problem than simply missed targets.
Perhaps the most disheartening accounts come from those recently hired. One employee, recruited less than six months ago, felt “sold a lie.” Lured by promises of workforce expansion and innovative new products, he left a stable job to join Jenius, drawn to the backing of a global banking giant. Now, just months later, he finds himself unemployed alongside numerous other recent hires. “It's crazy to me that you can go from mass hiring to, ‘yeah, never mind, we're not doing this anymore,’” he lamented. “It's not like they're like a small startup.”
Adding another layer of complexity, an external customer service representative for Jenius claimed on Friday morning that the bank was not closing, expressing confusion over the employee reports. This conflicting information only deepens the mystery surrounding Jenius's fate.
As of now, Jenius has made no public statement regarding its alleged closure. This silence, coupled with the accounts of former employees and the digital disappearing act, paints a concerning picture. But what's the real story behind Jenius Bank's potential demise? Was it simply market forces, internal missteps, or a combination of both? And more importantly, what does this situation say about the risks and rewards of joining a digital banking venture? What recourse do employees have when situations like this happen? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below. We're eager to hear your perspective.
