Japan

Says monetary easing made loans less profitable.

Says it was encouraged by India’s high growth potential.

Expansion into Western Australia driven by need to support Japanese firms.

Japan's largest financial group buys US$3.7 billion loan portfolio of UnionBanCal.

Provide assistance to government agencies and others on managing infrastructure loans.

But their liquidity positions are stronger.

The Cape Wind Project is the first offshore wind energy project in the USA.

Japan’s largest banking group intends to take over Thailand’s fifth largest bank.

Mastermind of Japan’s quantitative easing to continue drafting monetary policy.

They have low dependence on confidence-sensitive market funding.

Foreign-currency liquidity and certificates of deposit are on the list.

Find out why this is 'bullish and ambitious'.

Its consumer loan unit intends to open the branches in the next three years. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. wants to focus its capital on China, where it already has a presence. It already has offices in Shenyang and Shenzhen and is to open a third in Tianjin. SMBC Consumer Finance’s subsidiaries in Shenyang and Shenzhen have 13 branches in both cities. It expects the number of Chinese outlets to increase to 70 after it opens the additional offices. SMBC Consumer Finance, which was created after Sumitomo Mitsui made Promise Compabt a wholly owned subsidiary in 2012, is expanding in faster-growing foreign markets as deflation crimps borrowing in Japan. Lending outstanding in China, Hong Kong and Thailand came to US$235 million as of Dec. 31, some 3% of SMBC Consumer Finance’s total loan amount of US$8 billion. Sumitomo Mitsui Chief Executive Officer Koichi Miyata recently said that consumer finance is one of the strengths of the Tokyo-based bank, Japan’s second largest by market value.  

Upgrade reflects sustained improvements in the banks' risk absorption capability.

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.