August 2, 2009
Japan's second largest banking group, Mizuho Financial Group Inc., on Friday announced sharp losses for the first fiscal quarter of 2009, while the country's largest banking group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., announced in the day stark profits for the same period, sending mixed messages of economic recovery.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.'s net profits for April - June 2009 climbed 48 percent from those of 2008. This net profit amounts to 75.94 billion yen for the fiscal quarter of 2009, which compares favorably with figures released last year of 51.20 billion for the corresponding months.
Profits for this year are already at 136.33 billion yen, a figure above those of last year by 40.7 percent despite revenues falling by 7.1 percent to 1.34 trillion yen.
At odds with figures released by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. are the quarterly losses posted on Friday of 4.49 billion yen by Mizuho Financial Group Inc. -- the bank's losses were attributed to derivatives trading and credit default swaps.
This comes as a bit of a surprise as last year the company turned a profit of 133 billion yen for the first fiscal quarter.
In the next nine months, the largest and second largest banks both expect to make a profit. Mizuho Financial Group Inc. forecasts profit for the year of 2009 to be 300 billion yen. Mizuho Financial Group Inc. predicts to pull in a target net profit of 200 billion yen for the fiscal year.