Japanese financial institutions' losses from the US sub-prime loan crisis more than tripled to a total of $4.1 billion in the final three months of 2007, the government said today.
Japanese financial institutions' actual losses on securities backed by troubled US mortgages rose to 442 billion yen ($4.1 billion) at the end of December from 141 billion yen in September, the Financial Advisory Agency said.
Their appraisal losses on such investments expanded to 158 billion yen from 135 billion yen in September, the agency said.
Last month, Japan's second-largest bank Mizuho Financial said it had lost 345 billion yen from the sub-prime crisis, which was sparked by a wave of Americans defaulting on risky mortgages that were often bundled up and resold.
Other Japanese banks have also reported sub-prime related losses, although so far on a smaller scale than many of their overseas peers.
