Sanwa Bank, Tokai Bank and Asahi Bank formally announced Tuesday that they have reached a basic agreement to come under a joint holding company in April 2001, creating the world's third-largest banking group.
Domestically, the three major banks, with combined assets of 106 trillion yen, will rank second in scale to the 140 trillion yen of the Mizuho Financial Group, to be created this autumn by Fuji Bank, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and Industrial Bank of Japan.
The Sanwa-Tokai-Asahi trio will rank third-largest in the world, after the planned union of Dresdner Bank and Deutsche Bank, whose assets would nearly match those of Mizuho.