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Japan's bank lending falls again
TOKYO, Japan -- Lending by the main categories of Japanese banks fell 4.8 percent in February from a year earlier, the central Bank of Japan said Monday. It was the 62nd consecutive month of decline and comes as big Japanese banks are again bearing the brunt of falls on the Japanese share market. With the Nikkei 225 average tumbling to fresh 20-year lows in early trade Monday, Sumitomo Mitsubishi Financial Group is down almost 7percent to 241,000 yen and UFJ Holdings is off 5.26 percent to 126,000 yen. Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group is down 4.8 percent to 455,000 yen. Preliminary data released by the BOJ on Monday showed that total outstanding loans by the main categories of Japanese banks, including money center "city" banks, stood at 415.92 trillion yen ($3,551 billion) in February, Reuters news agency reported. Including "shinkin" banks, or credit unions, lending fell by 4.4 percent to 478.59 trillion yen in February. City bank lending fell 7.5 percent in February from a year earlier, while regional bank lending fell just 0.3 percent. The comparable figure for second-tier regional banks was a fall of 1.7 percent. Shinkin banks fell 2.2 percent. Lending by overseas banks in Japan fell 13.7 percent from a year earlier to 6.98 trillion yen. The administration of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been struggling to restructure the country's banking system, which is weighed down by bad loans worth many billions of dollars. Big banks have been seeking to raise fresh capital to improve their financial strength. But their share prices have been falling ahead of the March 31 end of financial year book closing. Reuters contributed to this report.
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