Three of the nation's top four banking groups said Monday they saw net income for the April-June quarter rise more than 10 percent on a year-on-year basis thanks to a fall in costs linked to bad-loan disposals.

Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan's largest bank in terms of assets, reported net income of 173.3 billion yen during the three-month period for a 15.3 percent rise, while rivals Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. saw net income rise 18.1 percent to 96.9 billion yen and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. enjoyed a 10.5 percent rise to 187.7 billion yen.

The fourth megabank, UFJ Holdings Inc., has yet to release its quarterly results.

The figures are the latest indication that the nation's banks are moving out of the sour loan disposal stage and shifting to a race to gain more income.

All three banking groups that released their figures Monday said they saw robust growth in commissions from sales of investment trusts and insurance products.

Operating income -- which shows the profit made in core businesses -- for the quarter at Mizuho came to 210 billion yen for a 10.9 percent jump, while Mitsubishi Tokyo saw a 2.3 percent rise to 160.4 billion yen.

But Sumitomo Mitsui, while continuing to remain at the top among the three with 247.1 billion yen in operating income, saw a 1.3 percent drop due to a decline in profits from bond transactions, according to the banking group.

The ratio of nonperforming loans in total lending came to 2.2 percent at Mizuho, 2.6 percent at Mitsubishi Tokyo and 3 percent at Sumitomo Mitsui, indicating they made headway in erasing their bad loans.

All three megabanks said they would maintain their projections of securing at least 400 billion yen in net income for the full business year to March 2006.