Mitsubishi UFJ Quarterly Net Profit Falls on Higher Credit Costs

By Kosaku Narioka

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group reported a decline in its first-quarter net profit, partly due to higher credit costs despite greater earnings from lending and higher fees.

The Japanese financial company said Thursday that net profit declined 0.4% from a year earlier to 555.89 billion yen, equivalent to $3.71 billion, for the three months ended June. That beat the estimate of Y429.38 billion in a poll of analysts by data provider Quick.

Mitsubishi UFJ said it continues to target net profit of Y1.500 trillion for the fiscal year ending March 2025.

The financial company booked total credit costs of Y166.76 billion in its first quarter, higher than Y41.64 billion a year earlier.

Net interest income--the difference between interest earned on loans and that paid on deposits--rose to Y823.13 billion from Y584.19 billion a year ago.

Japanese government bond yields have been trending higher in recent months as the Bank of Japan unwound its unorthodox monetary-easing measures. On Wednesday, the BOJ raised its policy rate to 0.25% and said it will roughly halve the amount of its monthly government bond purchases by early 2026.

Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 01, 2024 04:01 ET (08:01 GMT)

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