TOKYO, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Mitsubishi UFJ Financial
Group named on Monday its deputy president Nobuyuki
Hirano as head of its core banking unit, a move that is likely
to accelerate its push overseas and one that presages Hirano’s
expected ascent to lead the entire company.

Hirano has been a key player in many strategic
moves for Japan’s biggest bank, including its alliance with
Morgan Stanley.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said October-December net profit growth was virtually flat from the previous year, with bond trading gains and smaller credit costs helping to offset weak domestic lending, and it kept its forecast for an annual net profit of 500 billion yen ($6.5 billion).

With little exposure to Europe’s troubled sovereign debt markets and less dependent than others on volatile investment banking, SMFG and local rivals Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) (8306.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Mizuho Financial Group (8411.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are better placed to push overseas by buying up assets that are being shed by their under-pressure western peers.

TOKYO, Jan 25 (Reuters) – Japan’s electricity
utilities may resume issuing bonds to help roll over $19 billion
worth of corporate debt that matures next fiscal year, but the
bulk of their funding will still come from loans.

The utilities were virtually shut out of the bond market
last year amid a series of credit rating downgrades and as the
radiation crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant led to
the shutdown of nuclear reactors.

MUMBAI/TOKYO, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Nippon Life Insurance
agreed to pay $290 million for a 26 percent stake in
the asset management unit of India’s Reliance Capital Ltd
, joining other foreign fund managers seeking to tap
into the country’s growing middle class.

The deal comes less than a year after Nippon Life, faced
with a stagnant market at home, paid $680 million for a 26
percent stake in life insurance business of Reliance Capital,
which is controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani.

TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese state-sponsored fund behind a string of headline-grabbing deals said its investment in overseas acquisitions by Japanese companies is likely to increase this year, helped by a stronger yen and an increase in asset sales abroad.

“We have been receiving a lot of (requests for investment in) overseas acquisitions. We are likely to see a substantial number of such deals this year,” Kimikazu Noumi, CEO of Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ), said in an interview on Tuesday.

TOKYO, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Sumitomo Mitsui Financial
Group’s (8316.T: Quote, Profile, Research) investment into U.S. Treasuries US10YT=RR is
likely to boost the bank’s profits again next year as yields on
the paper have further to fall, the president of Japan’s
third-largest lender by assets said on Thursday.

“Yields on Japanese government bonds have not moved much,
but we are seeing sharp yield drops in the United States and we
have been making gains from Treasury trading,” Koichi Miyata
told Reuters in an interview, with his comments embargoed until
Friday.

TOKYO, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Sumitomo Mitsui Financial
Group’s (8316.T: Quote, Profile, Research) investment into U.S. Treasuries US10YT=RR is
likely to boost the bank’s profits again next year as yields on
the paper have further to fall, the president of Japan’s
third-largest lender by assets said on Thursday.

“Yields on Japanese government bonds have not moved much,
but we are seeing sharp yield drops in the United States and we
have been making gains from Treasury trading,” Koichi Miyata
told Reuters in an interview, with his comments embargoed until
Friday.

TOKYO, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Tokio Marine said
on Wednesday it will buy U.S. insurer Delphi Financial Group
for $2.7 billion, the latest in a string of deals by
Japan’s second-largest property-casualty insurer aimed at
growing outside its mature home market.

Tokio Marine said it would pay $43.875 for each class A
share, compared with the last traded price in New York of
$25.43.

TOKYO, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Japan’s financial regulator
slapped penalties on the Japanese units of Citigroup and
UBS on Friday, including a month-long suspension of
retail marketing of financial products by a Citi unit for
violating rules on sales of such products.

It is the third regulatory sanction on Citi in Japan since
2004 and the company said the CEO of Citibank Japan will step
down while the bank looks for a Japanese industry veteran to
fill the position.

TOKYO, Dec 9 (Reuters) – Japanese financial
authorities are set to take punitive action against a Citigroup
unit, accusing its employees of trying to influence a
short-term interest rate benchmark, three sources familiar with
the matter said on Friday.

The move would be a new headache for the U.S. financial
giant, with sources also saying last week that it is under
scrutiny for a separate matter.