Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan's third-biggest banking group by assets, said Monday its group net profit dropped 30 percent to ¥170.6 billion in the six months to September partly due to losses resulting from the U.S. subprime loan crisis.

Sumitomo Mitsui also attributed the losses to falling stock prices of affiliate consumer lender Promise Co. and OMC Card Inc., a credit card firm that Sumitomo Mitsui partially bought in July from the Daiei Inc. supermarket chain.

But profit from its core banking business increased by ¥79.3 billion from the same period last year to ¥390.9 billion.