THE new head of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) said the Japanese bank is watching closely for chances to buy assets in the United States, adding that the latest banking crisis has not dented its confidence in the world’s biggest capital market.

“The US market will stay attractive” despite the financial turbulence triggered by the fall of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Akihiro Fukutome, who was promoted from senior managing officer to chief executive on Saturday (Apr 1), told Reuters in an interview.

Fukutome ruled out the possibility of buying a US bank as a whole, but said that the Japanese group would be looking at assets that may be offered for sale and a team of bankers managing those assets.

Credit Suisse Group’s securitised products group last year, for instance, was among opportunities his team had explored, he said. US buyout fund Apollo Global Management bought most of the business.

SMBC is a core banking unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), Japan’s second-largest banking group after Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

In an effort to bolster its US presence, the group has already teamed up with Jefferies Financial Group, with the intention of eventually raising its stake in the investment bank from nearly 5 per cent currently.

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Fukutome also said the implosion of SVB and its fallout have highlighted the stability of Japanese banks in the US. SMBC has already received some funding inquires from local and Japanese companies operating there, he said.

“We are expecting more opportunities to come ahead where we can provide solutions,” he noted.

“Clients we helped during the global financial crisis have stayed with us since,” he added, recalling the time around the Lehman Brothers bust, when he was working in New York.

Fukutome, 60, joined Mitsui Bank, one of SMBC’s predecessor banks, in 1985 and had a three-year stint as president at Toyota Motor Corp’s financial services unit from 2018, a rarity among Japanese bank chiefs. REUTERS