Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank and Asahi Bank are expected to create Japan's second largest financial group through a merger, and an announcement could come as early as today.
Banking industry sources said the banks have been talking about setting up a joint holding company in April 2001. After integrating their operations, the alliance would have combined assets of more than 100 trillion yen, second in scale to the 140 trillion yen of the Mizuho Financial Group to be created this fall by Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan.
It would be the world's third-largest bank grouping; the planned union of Germany's Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank, announced last week, would nearly match Mizuho.