MUFG Bank, Ltd. is the largest bank in Japan. It was established on January 1, 2006 following the merger of Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. and UFJ Bank Ltd.. MUFG is one of three so-called Japanese “megabanks” (along with SMBC and Mizuho). It is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board.
The bank serves as the main retail, corporate and investment banking arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. Its traditional client base is made up of Japanese corporates, but foreign corporate lending grew by 35% in the nine months to December 31, 2011. The bank’s head office is in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and it has 772 other offices in Japan and 76 offices abroad.
As of June 23, 2019, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group / MUFG Bank was ranked as the largest bank in Japan and the fourth largest in the world.
Mitsubishi Bank was founded in 1880 by a former samurai, Iwasaki Yataro, and was a core member of the Mitsubishi Group of companies. In 1996, the Bank of Tokyo merged with The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi to form The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, which was then the largest bank in the world by total assets. In 1998, after the merger of the then second and third largest Swiss banks, Union Bank of Switzerland, and Swiss Bank Corporation, the newly created UBS AG became the second largest in the world at that time after the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. ] Since its foundation in 1880 as the Yokohama Speci Bank, the Bank of Tokyo has historically focused on foreign exchange trading, while Mitsubishi focused more on domestic corporate and retail banking. Both banks were relatively healthy in the wake of the Japanese asset price bubble.
