Japan’s largest bank has suffered as much as $3.9 billion in credit crunch-related losses so far this year, Reuters reports.
Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFJ) had previously released a loss estimate four times lower than this figure.
A decline in the value of its shares of 4.5% followed the bank’s report.
The Mainichi newspaper, which reported on the loss speculation, claimed that MUFJ would suffer $2.9 billion of further write-downs on securitised financial products – along with the bank’s previous sub-prime loss prediction of $916 million.
Speaking to the news agency last month, Asia-Pacific analyst at CLSA Graeme Knowd had predicted that MUFJ was particularly at risk of write-downs in securities.
“When the problem moves from subprime to just other stuff, they have more than anyone else [in Japan],” he says.