OREANDA-NEWS. Aozora Bank, Ltd., a leading Japanese commercial bank, announced its interim financial results for FY2014.

In the first half of FY2014, Aozora reported consolidated net revenue of 46.2 billion yen and net income of 23.7 billion yen, representing progress of 50% and 55%, respectively, towards the full-year forecasts of 92.0 billion yen and 43.0 billion yen.

Net revenue was 46.2 billion yen, an increase of 7.5 billion yen, or 19.3% year on year, reflecting year on year increases in both net interest income and non-interest income.

Business profit was 27.3 billion yen, an increase of 7.8 billion yen, or 40.2% year on year. Net income was 23.7 billion yen, representing progress of 55% towards the full-year forecast of 43.0 billion yen.

The loan balance increased 76.3 billion yen, or 2.9%, to 2,719.8 billion yen from March 31, 2014. Overseas loans increased by 90.8 billion yen while domestic loans decreased 14.5 billion yen as the Bank maintained its focus on balancing risk and return.

The percentage of retail funding to total core funding (the sum of deposits, negotiable certificates of deposit and debentures) was stable at 62.1%. The Bank maintained adequate liquidity reserves of approximately 520 billion yen as of September 30, 2014.

Non-performing claims as defined by the Financial Reconstruction Law (FRL) were 52.0 billion yen, a decrease of 28.1 billion yen, or 35.1%, from March 31, 2014. The FRL ratio improved by 1.10 points to 1.88%. In addition, the percentage of FRL claims covered by reserves, collateral and guarantees remained high at 88.0% as of September 30, 2014.

The Bank's consolidated capital adequacy ratio (Basel III basis, domestic standard) remained high at 14.94% (preliminary basis).