Japan's 136 commercial banks incurred a combined loan-loss charge of 2.28 trillion yen in the first half of fiscal 2000, the Financial Services Agency has said.
Of the total, 1.19 trillion yen was funneled into the loan-loss reserves accounts of the 136 banks to cover future losses, while the same banks "charged off" the remaining 967.4 billion yen against their loan-loss reserves account, the agency said Thursday.
When a bank charges off a bad loan as an uncollectible asset, the sum is removed from the bank's balance sheet and deducted from existing loan-loss provisions.