Mizuho Financial closes London securitisation office

by Gill Montia

Story link: Mizuho Financial closes London securitisation office

Mizuho Financial Group (MFG), Japan’s second largest bank, is closing its London securitisation business.

Speaking in Tokyo, an MFG spokesman said that current market conditions made it impossible to continue with securitisation work in the London markets.

MFG has so far written down £2.78 billion on mortgage-backed securities and is in the process of a global review of Mizuho International, its securities and investment banking business.

The loss is the largest relating to the US sub-prime mortgage crisis of any Asian bank and was partly responsible for a 50% decrease in the group’s profit in 2007.

So far, the credit crisis is estimated to have cost 47,000 jobs in the global banking sector.

Earlier this month, a leaked report by analysts at JPMorgan predicted that London would see 40,000 financial sector jobs cut by the end of 2009.