Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.’s stock market value shot up to the highest in Japan, marking the first time a bank reached the top position since the current so-called three megabank groups were established.
The stock price of Japan’s biggest bank rose 2.3% to a record-high ¥3,541 on Monday, giving it a market value of ¥42 trillion ($259 billion), according to Bloomberg-compiled data. That exceeded Toyota Motor Corp.’s about ¥41 trillion and Kioxia Holdings Corp.’s ¥36.7 trillion. Another megabank, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., saw its shares advance 1.6% to an all-time high as well.
Japanese bank shares have climbed since the Bank of Japan ended its negative interest rate policy in March 2024, letting them charge more for loans. That’s in contrast to the lenders’ struggles in recent decades as the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s left them with a massive pile of bad debt while radical monetary easing policy to battle deflation made it difficult to lift lending rates.
The BOJ has pushed up rates four more times since its first hike in 2024 to boost the policy rate to 1%. The increase allows banks to profit from the widening gap between lending and deposit rates, bolstering their bottom line. MUFG estimates that for every 0.25% increase in interest rates, its net interest income will be boosted by ¥180 billion annually in future.
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