Buoyed by a wide-ranging business recovery and a massive one-time gain caused by reductions in loan-loss reserves, the nation's top banking groups have reported record-breaking profits for the 2005 business year ended in March.

The combined net profits of the six major banking groups reached 3.12 trillion yen in 2005, or more than quadruple what they logged the year before.

The total also surpasses the record of about 2.2 trillion yen set by all banks in 1990 at the height of the asset-inflated bubble economy.