Japan

Appointment takes effect April 1. Noboyuki Hirano, 61, will take over leadership of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan’s largest financial group, as the group expands overseas and has made several important acquisitions. He will replace Katsunori Nagayasu. Hirano spent over a decade in the United States and is a fluent English speaker, a rare trait among Japanese bank executives. MUFG, which has US$26 billion in assets, has taken advantage of its solid financial base to build loans overseas as European lenders shrink their assets. It ranked No. 1 among global project finance mandated arrangers in 2012. MUFG runs two investment banking joint ventures with Morgan Stanley in Japan, competing with industry heavy weights Nomura Holdings and Daiwa Securities Group Inc.  

It's to streamline multi-bank JPY payment and reporting processes.

Formal Japanese request asks greater financial inclusion for Japanese banks.

Japan's second-largest bank intends to acquire a US commercial bank in the next three years,

But they're still resilient against interest rate risk.

Asian Development Bank president Haruhiko Kuroda has emerged as the leading contender.

The Trojan that began stealing banking information in 2007 resurfaces in Japan.

Japan's top financial services and leasing company is paying US$3 billion for the Dutch asset manager.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Garanti Bank will cooperate on trade financing.

Growth up to 20% to come from M&As and organic growth.

Check out how well it fared last year.

But Fitch warns it will be a 'selective' growth.

Business opportunities for Nomura Holdings Inc. are expected to grow this year.

Japan's second-largest bank posts a US$6.1 billion profit from to April-December.

Recent stock market rally also benefits other Japanese megabanks.

Merchant acquiring and processing across Asia-Pacific is far from homogenous. It is a collection of quite unique markets.