Japan financials sub-prime losses reach $ 8bn

06 June 2008

Losses from investments tied to the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market cost Japanese financial firms about $8 billion as of the end of March, Japan's FSA said on Friday, up 42 percent from December.

Losses from investments tied to the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market cost Japanese financial firms about $8 billion as of the end of March, Japan's FSA said on Friday, up 42 percent from December.

 

Total exposure to sub- prime related investments came to 1 trillion yen ($9.4 billion) as of the same period, down a third from three months earlier, the FSA said. Although many Japanese firms have avoided the sub-prime damage that tore through global rivals such as UBS AG and Merrill Lynch, some of Tokyo's biggest banks have been heavily bruised.

 

Mizuho Financial Group, Japan's second-largest lender, lost 645 billion yen ($6.1 billion) on sub-prime related investments in the year to March, with almost half of that in the January-March quarter. Japanese financials lost 850 billion yen ($8 billion) as of the end of March, the FSA said, compared with 600 billion as of the end of December.

 

Large Japanese banks had sub- prime related losses of 775 billion yen as of the end of March and held sub- prime related investments worth 933 billion yen. 

 

Exposures of Japanese deposit-taking institutions to subprime-related products

Exposures of Japanese deposit-taking institutions to securitized products based on the leading practices summarized in the FSF report

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