Tag - banks

 
 

BANKS

Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Dec 19, 2015
BOJ adjustments signal limits to monetary easing
The policy adjustments announced by the Bank of Japan on Friday may indicate there are limits to the drastic monetary easing policy the central bank launched to stoke 2 percent inflation.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 11, 2015
Islamic State bagged $1.5 billion from bank looting, oil sales, key U.S. Treasury official says
Islamic State militants have looted up to $1 billion from bank vaults in Syria and Iraq and has made at least another half a billion dollars from black market oil sales, senior U.S. Treasury official Adam Szubin said on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2015
BOJ dooms credit analysts as foreign banks let Tokyo posts lapse
Foreign brokerages are leaving credit analyst positions in Tokyo unfilled as record central bank bond-buying stimulus makes it hard for them to make profits.
BUSINESS
Dec 6, 2015
Pursuing transparency, Vatican orders external audit of assets
The Vatican said Saturday it had ordered the first external audit of its assets as part of a drive by Pope Francis to bring transparency to its finances where millions of euros have gone unrecorded without any central oversight.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 5, 2015
Hanzai Japan
Hackneyed writing and plot devices grow like kabi (mold) in crime fiction, but this anthology of 16 stories by writers in and outside Japan serves up tasty surprises. "Jigoku" by Naomi Hirahara is a heartfelt, surefooted tale by a serial killer confined to a cardboard-box in hell. Carrie Vaughn's "The Girl Who Loved Shonen Knife" is a breathless, manga-esque escapade about a schoolgirl who'll stop at nothing to win a battle of the bands contest. And Yumeaki Hirayama's "Monologue of a Universal Transverse Mercator Projection" overcomes its clunky title with an animistic tale of grisly slayings — narrated by none other than an atlas of Tokyo. There's more guts and gore than a Japanese whaling research vessel here — some of it ridiculously gratuitous, as in "The Saitama Chain Saw Massacre" by Japanese science-fiction heavyweight Hiroshi Sakurazaka, author of "All You Need is Kill."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Nov 25, 2015
Japan: surprisingly, sensibly and endearingly low-tech
The common image of Japan abroad as a high-tech country is severely out of step with the everyday experience of those of us who live here.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 20, 2015
Convenience store giant Lawson eyes entering banking business
Lawson Inc. sets up a new lender with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ as the convenience store chain prepares to make a foray into banking.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 9, 2015
Return-starved mega-banks boost lending 25% in Australia
The nation's biggest banks are looking to get more bang for their buck Down Under, expanding loans in Australia 25 percent in the past year.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 2, 2015
Ashikaga, Joyo to merge next October and become Japan's third-largest regional
Ashikaga Holdings Co. in Tochigi Prefecture and Joyo Bank in Ibaraki Prefecture have reached a broad agreement to merge next Oct. 1.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 31, 2015
How analysts calculate China's true — and huge — burden of bad loans
Corporate investigator Violet Ho never put a lot of faith in the numbers on bad loans that are reported by China's banks.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 26, 2015
Regional lender Ashikaga reportedly considering merger with Joyo Bank
Ashikaga Holdings Co. is considering merging with Joyo Bank Ltd., the latest regional lenders to weigh such a move as the slowing economy and shrinking population saps loan demand.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 26, 2015
Japan's largest bank said to enter fray for Bank Panin stake
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. has entered the running for a 39 percent stake in PT Bank Pan Indonesia, people with knowledge of the matter said, potentially setting up a battle between two of Japan's largest banks.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 20, 2015
Japan Post's IPO might just shake up lagging regional lenders
The nation's regional banks need a little shaking up: There are far too many of them, profits from loans are shrinking, and their customers are disappearing. The enormous privatization of Japan Post, coming up next month, may just help spur them into action.
BUSINESS
Oct 9, 2015
Malaysian central bank urged criminal prosecution of state fund
Malaysia's central bank said on Friday it had urged the country's attorney general to begin criminal prosecution of troubled fund 1MDB after completing its investigation, piling more pressure on Prime Minister Najib Razak who chairs the fund's advisory board.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2015
When the 'febezzle' comes home to roost
In any case of embezzlement, there is a period when the embezzler has his gain and the victim feels no loss — a period of increased psychic wealth that John Kenneth Galbraith called 'the bezzle.'
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 7, 2015
BOJ stops short of increasing stimulus as it watches prices
The Bank of Japan kept its record stimulus unchanged on Wednesday amid growing speculation that signs of a recession will press it to act at the end of the month.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 2, 2015
Kuroda's retreat from bonds stymied by expectations for more BOJ stimulus
With the economy weakening markedly, banks are flocking to longer-dated government debt on expectations the Bank of Japan will expand its stimulus program. That's creating fresh challenges for BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda, who's trying to get banks to buy fewer bonds and lend more.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 30, 2015
Mizuho Financial eyes stake in Matthews International Capital
Mizuho Financial Group Inc. said Wednesday it will take a roughly 16 percent stake in Matthews International Capital Management LLC, a U.S. fund management company with a focus on Asia, in a bid to improve the profitability of its asset management business.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 29, 2015
Japan Post Bank eyes launch of investment fund with local banks
The state-backed Japan Post Bank Co. is considering setting up an investment fund with local financial institutions to support small- and medium-sized companies as it aims to diversify its fund management options, sources close to the matter said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2015
Japan's cheap debt, aging population prompt ex-banker to shift focus
Saburo Nishiura is using Japan's record-low borrowing costs to turn the nation's shrinking population to his advantage.

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When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree