DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
UnionBanCal Corp. said parent Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
Inc. (MTU) will inject $2 billion by Wednesday to offset possible
credit losses if the economy weakens further.
President and Chief Executive Masaaki Tanaka said the capital
contribution was made at UnionBanCal's request to ensure that
customers, bank regulators, credit-rating agencies and others
"continue to view UnionBanCal as one of the financially strongest
financial institutions in the U.S."
The credit-loss estimate was based on a "highly adverse economic
scenario" from the Federal Reserve that Tanaka called
"significantly more pessimistic" than the bank's financial
forecast. If actual credit losses are closer to the Fed's bad-case
scenario, "we will have considerable excess capital that could be
deployed to support incremental organic growth and
acquisitions."
UnionBanCal said its capital-level measurements as of June 30
were above those of fellow regional banks and "substantially
higher" than those of its primary California competitors.
Mitsubishi UFJ last year acquired the 35% stake of UnionBanCal
that it didn't already own for $3.5 billion.
-By Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357;
Kathy.Shwiff@dowjones.com
