Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. will target alliances with Asian banks, including Malaysia's RHB Capital Bhd., to boost income as domestic lending falls.
"We have a close relationship with RHB and are considering what kind of business we can do together," President Teisuke Kitayama, 61, said in an interview at the Tokyo-based bank's headquarters.
Kitayama said SMFG may "make a major or small investment" in commercial banks in Southeast Asia, following its purchase of a stake in a Vietnamese bank last year.