Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. said Tuesday it posted a record 234.2 billion yen group net loss for the business year ended March 31, a sharp reversal from the 330.4 billion yen net profit it recorded a year earlier.

The plunge at the nation's third-largest bank in terms of assets resulted from an acceleration in writeoffs of nonperforming loans as ordered after a lengthy inspection by the Financial Services Agency earlier this year.

SMFG booked 1.2 trillion yen in bad-loan disposal costs for the year, up by more than 20 percent from a year earlier.