Lending crunch fails to cripple Japan's mega banks as they join world's largest 20 lenders

MUFG is the ninth largest bank globally with a tier 1 capital of $153.04b.

A widespread lending crunch brought about by dwindling loan demand fails to dampen the positive course charted by Japanese banks as they muscle their way into the world’s 20 largest bank rankings based on Tier-1 Capital by The Banker.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) jumps one place to stand as the ninth largest lender in the world with $153.04b in Tier 1 Capital.

The other two mega banks are not too far behind with Sumitomo Mitsui occupying 14th place with $99.92b whilst Mizuho Financial Group ranks at 16th place with $86.56b.

“In Japan, the top three megabanks have maintained their positions at the top of this year’s country ranking, in the same order as the two preceding years,” the report noted.

Chinese banks beat out their European counterparts and occupied the top four spots globally with ICBC sealing its dominance with a whopping $324b in Tier 1 Capital. China Construction Bank trails in at second place with $272b. Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China follow with $224b and $218b respectively, who rose up the rankings at the expense of JP Morgan Chase who slipped to fifth place with capital of $209b.

The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks ranking is an industry benchmark that has provided intelligence about the health and wealth of the global banking sector since 1970.