Japanese banks arrest long-term decline

摘要

Immediately after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, market watchers predicted an era of renewed vigour for Japan's conservative banking sector. As Nomura swiftly moved to snap up Lehman Brothers' European and Asian businesses and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) took a 20% stake in Morgan Stanley, it seemed the Western subprime crisis had presented well-capitalised Japanese banks with a golden opportunity to realise much-needed global growth through cheap foreign acquisitions.rnBut the story has not proved that simple. While there has been an encouraging up-tick in acquisition activity in recent months - including Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group's (SMFG) purchase of Citi's Japanese securities business - the Japanese banking sector has proved highly vulnerable to the global economic downturn.