The Times UK does a profile of UFJ Bank in Japan which was created from the merger of Sanwa and Tokai Banks.
Some notes:
- UFJ Bank stock price up 700% since April 2003
- ATMs going to 24 hrs. (this is big new in Japan, sadly)
- UFJ Bank president Teranishi is moving into sub-prime lending (where will the yakuza go then?)
- Developing invesment trusts for small investors
- Expanding into China
- 23% of UFJ Bank stock is held by Soverign Asset Management (Kiwis in Monaco)
- Lending most vigorously to "discount stores" (ugh, more 100 yen shops and Don Quixotes...)
Some quotes:
ǃ˙but we have dramatically changed the way we work. Within the company we had a common understanding of the crisis and we overcame it together through a massive and shared sense of urgency. Processes that took 20 years to play out in the past have taken two years to happen now.ǃ˘
- Still too long. Try 2 months. And then 2 weeks.
This interview doesn't pass the smell test to me. I don't trust these guys at all. UFJ, Sumitomo-Mitsui, Mizuho, etc. still have many billions of bad debts on the books, and do not deserve stock run-ups of 700% in one year. Micro-bubble here, imo.
