Japanese banks' bad loans increase
www1.chinadaily.com.cn
TOKYO: Japan's 12 major banks saw the emergence of 2 trillion yen (US$16.1 billion) in new non-performing loans in the first half of the fiscal year up to September, a report said yesterday.
The loans were to borrowers rated at risk of bankruptcy or in even worse condition, said the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper, which reviewed data at the watchdog Financial Services Agency.
The major banks registered 12.3 trillion yen (US$98.8 billion) of non-performing loans as of September 30, down 3.1 trillion yen from March 31, "but still stubbornly high because of the growth of new bad loans," it said.
Loans to borrowers rated at risk of bankruptcy, technically bankrupt or bankrupt accounted for about half of the entire 23.9 trillion yen (US$192 billion) of non-performing loans held by the major banks as of September 30, the paper said.
"The figures, obtained by the FSA through an informal polling of the major banks, underscore how new bad loans keep arising to replace old ones as banks move to sweep away non-performing loans with final write-offs," it said.
In the past two years, the major banks have cleared 70 per cent of the 12.7 trillion yen (US$102 billion) of these loans that were on their books as of the end of September 2000, representing a clean-up of 9.3 trillion yen (US$74 billion), it said.
But about 2 trillion to 3 trillion yen of new non-performing loans have arisen every six months during the same period.
As a result, loans to borrowers at risk of bankruptcy, technically bankrupt or bankrupt declined by only 400 billion yen (US$3.2 billion) in the past two years, the Nihon Keizai said.
Roughly 6.9 trillion yen (US$55.4 billion) in new non-performing loans emerged during the six months up to March 31 this year, largely due to the impact of tighter assessments made during special regulatory examinations.
Agencies via Xinhua |
