5 major banks report group net profits for April-Sept.+

TOKYO, Nov. 13 Kyodo -
Five of Japan's top six banks, including Mizuho Financial Group Inc., posted
net profits for the April-September period amid the easing of the global
financial turmoil, although three of them saw profits decline from a year
earlier, according to their financial results released Friday.

Mizuho Financial, Japan's second-largest banking group by assets, reported a
group net profit of 87.81 billion yen for the first half of fiscal 2009 ending
next March, down 7.1 percent from a year earlier.
''The worst is behind us, but we need to operate carefully and safely,'' Mizuho
Financial Group President Takashi Tsukamoto told a press conference, voicing
concern over the expected slow pace of the nation's economic recovery amid
stagnant capital investment and a weak job market.
Tsukamoto added ''the largest challenge'' facing Mizuho in the near term is how
to control bad-loan related costs.
The nation's No. 3 lender, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., saw its net
profit surge 48.3 percent to 123.54 billion yen in the same period. Industry
leader Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. is set to release its earnings
report next week.
Among smaller peers, Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. and Chuo Mitsui Trust
Holdings Inc., which last week announced a plan to merge in April 2011, both
reported net profits of around 19 billion yen. Chuo Mitsui's profit represents
a 38.4 percent increase from a year earlier while Sumitomo Trust's was down
31.9 percent.
Resona Holdings Inc. reported a net profit of 85.59 billion yen, down 0.9 percent.
The major Japanese lenders all suffered losses or sharp double-digit profit
falls in the previous fiscal year ended March 31 due to mounting bad-loan
disposal costs and equity investment losses amid the global financial crisis.
The latest earnings reports show that the lenders are recovering from the shock
of the financial turmoil, with some reporting smaller bad-loan costs.
The five lenders' combined bad-loan disposal costs totaled 363.3 billion yen,
down 25.0 percent from a year earlier, as a surge in corporate bankruptcies
came to a halt thanks partly to government stimulus measures such as its loan
guarantee system for smaller firms.
Profits from trading in assets such as government bonds also helped to make the
lenders profitable as some stability returned to financial markets.
But business related to lending to companies and sales of investment trusts
remained sluggish.
All of the five lenders retained their net profit projections for the whole of
fiscal 2009 while Mizuho Financial, Sumitomo Mitsui and Sumitomo Trust revised
downward their revenue estimates.
==Kyodo
2009-11-13 23:28:15