TOKYO :Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc and Mizuho Financial Group on Thursday reported strong third-quarter profits in their core businesses thanks to an economic rebound in Japan and solid loan demand abroad.
Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan's largest lender by assets, saw its October-December net profit drop 61.2 per cent from a year earlier because of another one-off loss related to the $8 billion sale of U.S. unit MUFG Union Bank, which it said would be mostly offset by an accounting gain in the fourth quarter. Mizuho's third-quarter net profit more than doubled to 209.3 billion yen compared to the same period last year, when results at the country's No. 3 lender were weighed down by loan loss provisions for KKR & Co's auto parts supplier Marelli Holdings Co.