Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is shoring its buffers to prepare for U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war, even as it forecast another year of record profit.
Japan’s second-largest lender expects net income to climb about 10% to ¥1.3 trillion ($8.8 billion) in the year that started in April, it said on Wednesday. That is slightly less than the ¥1.37 trillion average estimate of analysts as the company said the U.S. tariff measures may have a ¥100 billion impact on profit.
Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui is the first of Japan’s biggest banks to give profit guidance as earnings drivers come under strain from Trump’s tariffs. Lending income has benefited from the Bank of Japan’s interest-rate hikes — a campaign that is now in doubt as recession fears mount.
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