Tag - banks

 
 

BANKS

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group CEO Hironori Kamezawa
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 22, 2023
Japan banks scramble to beef up asset management businesses
Asset management has emerged as an area of focus for the banks this year amid signs decades of deflation is ending.
Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking is set to buy Australian data manager Link Administration Holdings for 1.11 billion Australian dollars.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 18, 2023
MUFG to buy Australia’s Link in ¥106 billion deal
The unit of Japan’s largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, will pay AU$2.10 per share, a 23.5% premium to Friday’s closing stock price.
Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan's largest banking group, bought 75% of AlbaCore last month to diversify its range of investment capabilities.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 12, 2023
MUFG's AlbaCore sees potential for alternative investments in Japan
Mitsubishi UFJ bought 75% of AlbaCore last month to diversify the range of investment capabilities.
Cybersecurity is a growing concern in Taiwan as the island sits at the center of U.S.-China tensions and has a critical presidential election in January.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 12, 2023
Taiwan taps experts and U.S. to prepare banks for cyberattacks
Officials in Taipei are consulting security experts from the U.S. Treasury Department and American cybersecurity specialists to simulate attacks.
Rakuten Bank executives hold a placard showing the company logo during a ceremony to mark the company's debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on April 21.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 6, 2023
Rakuten to raise up to $433 million with further sale of bank unit
The planned sale of 25.5 million shares is equivalent to just under 15% of the online bank, according to LSEG data.
A young boy watches a screen showing Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Military Museum in Beijing.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 6, 2023
Xi Jinping is asserting tighter control of finance in China
The Communist Party expects banks, pension funds, insurers and other financial organizations in China to follow Marxist principles.
A representative for Morgan Stanley, which in August said it was 70% of the way toward reaching the $1 trillion in sustainable financing it’s told investors it will achieve by 2030, declined to comment beyond referring to the bank’s latest ESG report.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 5, 2023
What banks really mean when they put trillions into ESG
With each bank announcing a different target, investors are left with little insight into the ways in which banks are defining what’s sustainable.
Kei Umeda, CEO of Mizuho Trust & Banking, speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Nov. 27.
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2023
Mizuho sees firms scrambling to meet TSE's capital efficiency call
In January the Tokyo bourse will start publishing a list of companies that have disclosed action plans in line with its call to improve use of capital.
Big Japanese banks are now training a generation of professional front-line staff who have little experience with rising interest rates.
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2023
Staff at Japan's banks scramble to adjust to rising interest rates
Many younger employees have no expertise in dealing with the vagaries of a traditional inflationary environment.
Toru Nakashima
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 30, 2023
SMFG names deputy president as group CEO after predecessor's death
Toru Nakashima's appointment will take effect Dec. 1, Japan's second-biggest lender said.
Yoshitaka Kitao, chief executive officer of SBI Holdings, says Japan is preparing the groundwork for the full-scale introduction of stablecoins.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2023
Circle enters pact with Japan’s SBI to spur USDC stablecoin usage
They will also establish a banking relationship and promote the use of Circle’s Web3 services in Japan.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is exploring more investments in mid- and late-stage tech startups, seeing room for expansion into a field that historically was shunned by relatively conservative giant lenders.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 22, 2023
Top Japanese bank builds startup fund as policy push lures lenders
Mars Growth Capital, co-run by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, now has around 40 to 50 potential investment deals for its recently launched equity fund.
A resurgence in market activity has already helped to boost earnings at Barclays’ Japanese securities arm this year, which is likely to surpass 2022’s record profit of ¥15.1 billion.
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2023
Barclays expects bumper Japan profit amid struggles elsewhere
The British bank is expecting another year of record profit in Japan on the back of the country’s debt and rates market trading resurgence.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group announced a $2.6 billion share buyback program after fiscal second-quarter profit tripled.
BUSINESS
Nov 14, 2023
Japan’s largest banks to buy back shares after profits soar
Japan’s biggest banks have unveiled plans to boost shareholder returns after posting record first-half profits, thanks in part to a cheaper yen.
Mizuho's main lending business has stayed strong as economic activity continues to normalize from the COVID-19 pandemic, helping the bank press down credit costs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 13, 2023
Mizuho hikes profit forecast on robust economic outlook
The lender raised its profit forecast to ¥640 billion from ¥610 billion, outpacing the ¥625.56 billion average estimate of 14 analysts.
ICBC Financial Services said in a statement a ransomware attack resulted in disruption to certain systems and it was conducting an investigation and "progressing its recovery efforts."
BUSINESS
Nov 10, 2023
China's biggest lender ICBC hit by ransomware attack
The lender said it was investigating the attack that disrupted some of its systems, and making progress toward recovering from it.
Mizuho Financial Group will raise its stake in Rakuten Securities to nearly 50%.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 9, 2023
Mizuho said to raise Rakuten Securities stake to almost 50%
The banking group plans to increase its investment in Rakuten’s online securities arm, which isn’t proceeding with an initial public offering for now.
Major banks are set to raise interest rates on time deposits amid a rise in long-term government bond yields.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 3, 2023
Major Japanese banks begin to raise time deposit rates
Deposit rates have been at extremely low levels for many years under the BOJ's massive monetary easing.
Kyoto Financial Group's early bets on Nintendo and other Kyoto-based startups are now bringing huge gains to the regional bank.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 3, 2023
Early bets on Nintendo and Nidec yield big gains for Kyoto bank
Kyoto Financial Group has equity holdings worth almost ¥903 billion thanks to investments made decades ago.
U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell during a news conference in Washington on Wednesday
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 3, 2023
Global central banks mark a possible plateau
Policymakers in Frankfurt, London and Washington uniformly say rate cuts won't be on the table until price pressures are truly contained.

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A store clerk tries to cool things down in front of their shop by spraying a hose.
Is extreme weather changing the way Japan shops?