UnionBanCal: To Get $2 Billion From Parent To Boost Balance Sheet

   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; [e-mail]