The U.S. subprime loan crisis and subsequent turbulence in stock markets worldwide pushed down profits at Japan's major banking groups in the business year that ended in March.
The combined losses of the four main banking groups from the subprime loan crisis reached ¥819 billion, up sharply from the ¥106 billion they had logged at the end of September.
But because the banks booked most of their losses related to risky housing and mortgage markets in business 2007, analysts say such losses will not continue to weigh them down this year.