Japan

Japanese banks' profitability to deteriorate at a slower pace

The gap between interest rates on existing loans and those on new loans is narrowing.

Japanese banks' profitability to deteriorate at a slower pace

The gap between interest rates on existing loans and those on new loans is narrowing.

Digital transformation: A new shape of core banking

Customer expectations for financial and banking services are rising at an ever faster rate. The approaches of banks are increasingly framed in black and white terms of good and bad. Banks found wanting or less than desirable are abandoned like sinking ships as customers take their transactions and businesses to more preferred institutions. Digital has made it simpler for customers to move their business to a different bank at the same time that it has made it possible for “undesirable” transaction business reviews to be disseminated nearly instantaneously — and as negative customer experiences can be shared in the blink of an eye, analog banks risk being left behind in the dust of the new digital era.

Mizuho eyes growing its cross-border transaction business by $100b

The bank hopes for a 20% boost in forex volume with the push into transaction businesses.

Two regional Japanese banks' merger to be delayed as monopoly concerns rise

The merger involves Fukuoka Financial Group and local rival Eighteenth Bank.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group hit by negative rates and shrinking margins

Profits could be slashed by up to $900,000 over the next three years.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ's CEO to step down

Sources told Reuters that the head of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU), the core business of Japan's biggest "megabank," has decided to step down for health reasons barely a year into the job.

MUFG's restructuring to add 7bps to its profitability

The reorganisation is expected to increase pre-tax profits by around US$43b.

Japanese banks bolster operations in Amsterdam

The city's cheaper rents, moderate taxes attract MUFG and Mizuho.

Japanese banks to use blockchain for domestic and international payments

This is after a successful pilot programme for a cloud-based payments platform.

What will be the main drivers of Japanese mega banks' overseas loan growth?

Average overseas NPL ratio stood at 0.7% as of end-September 2016.

Digital transformation of the securities industry in Japan and Asia

Industries across the board are undergoing structural change. This change extends beyond individual firms and spills across industrial sectors. Other industries that have been exposed to the tide of technology-driven structural changes have through the process harnessed technology to be reinvented as new industries befitting this evolution in industrial structure. The financial industry traditionally has been far from the vanguard of this change.

Japanese banks' loan growth expected to slow in 2017

Blame it on the rising costs of foreign-currency funding.