Mizuho Corporate Bank said Wednesday it will lower its long-term prime lending rate by 0.15 percentage point to 2.5 percent per annum, bringing the rate down for the first time in two months.
The new rate, charged on loans of one year or longer to its most creditworthy corporate borrowers, will take effect Thursday.
The rate cut comes on the heels of a downward trend in market rates, reversing an upward trend in the market up until the Bank of Japan's decision on July 14 to put an its five-year-old "zero-interest-rate" policy.