Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) eyes a big hike in overseas revenue, hiring staff in its European investment bank and lending more to foreign customers as rivals retreat, a top executive told Reuters. The Japanese lender wants to be in the top 10 in the United States - where it has a commercial banking network - measured by assets and profit, said Takashi Morimura, head of the group's global business unit.
"We would like to enhance our business in overseas markets," Morimura said. "Our penetration to European corporates has been increasing." MUFG's access to Asian economies had been a major advantage in attracting such clients. "After the Lehman shock, many companies in the United States and Europe tried to invest their money in Asia because it is a growing economy."
MUFG, Japan's biggest bank by assets, posted a 39 percent drop in quarterly net profit in February, hit by weak stock markets affecting clients. Its market value currently stands at $74 billion. Foreign markets contribute 16 percent to the group's revenues and it plans to significantly increase that percentage, Morimura said. But he declined to quantify the number or to give an exact timeframe for the build-out.
European clients are far more lucrative for the bank than others. Its 1,000 European customers contributed 80 percent of the global investment bank's profits even though their number is far smaller than its 4,000 Japanese clients. The Japanese clients are often smaller in size than their European peers, Morimura said.
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