BANKING & FINANCE - Nov. 27, 1993

Profits Fall at Japan’s Trust Banks: The nation’s seven major trust banks said their profits for the first half of the fiscal year fell an average of 43.8%. Banking analysts said the weak Japanese economy will probably force the banks to lengthen their schedules for writing off bad loans. Trust banks, which engage in both commercial banking and in managing clients’ investments, hold a collective $23.9 billion in bad loans from the bubble economy of the late 1980s. The banks have been retiring the debts with profits from stock holdings. But on Friday the 225-share Nikkei average ended at a 10-month low of 16,726.37.