MUFG Bank
Japan’s biggest banks generally recorded solid performance in the financial year ending March 31, 2022, thanks to their retail and global corporate banking business lines. Of the lot, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group impressed the most, making it Asiamoney’s best domestic bank in Japan in 2022.
Under the leadership of Hironori Kamezawa, who took charge as MUFG’s president and group chief executive in April 2020, the largest of Japan’s three megabanks returned to the trillion-yen club during the financial year, reporting net income of ¥1.13 trillion ($8 billion), up 46% year on year.
This was the group’s best performance in five years, with improvements across most business segments. MUFG’s credit costs dropped 36% and fee income rose 13% – the best increase among the megabanks – as sales of investment products in Japan and overseas jumped.
Return on equity was 7.79%, up 2.16 percentage points from the previous year. As domestic and international lending spreads ticked up, MUFG’s net interest income jumped 7% year on year for the 12 months to the end of March 2022.
The group’s momentum has faded little since then. In the six months to the end of September 2022, MUFG reported a 17% growth in gross profits year on year, to ¥2.3