Mitsubishi UFJ Profits Get Lending Boost

Updated from 4:19 a.m. EDT

TOKYO (TheStreet) -- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial(MTU Quote), Japan's largest bank by assets, reported fiscal first-quarter earnings jumped 48.3% as net interest income rose because of an increase in overseas lending.

Earnings were 75.94 billion yen ($794.3 million) compared with 51.2 billion yen a year earlier. It's the first profit the bank recorded in three quarters.

Net interest income in the quarter rose to 555.2 billion yen from 470 billion yen a year earlier.

The bank left unchanged its target of 300 billion yen of consolidated net income for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.

Meanwhile, Mizuho Financial (MFG Quote), Japan's second-laregst bank, reported Friday a 4.49 billion yen loss for the fiscal first quarter, battered by the fallout from the global slowdown. It posted a profit of 133.0 billion yen a year earlier.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York.