Write-up of Japan Achievement Awards 2008, day 1

BEST BANK
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ
Our winner is the core retail and commercial banking arm of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, which is impressive because of how busy it was in the second half of 2008 when most banks were distracted by dealing with heavy losses. First, MUFG bought an $8 billion, 22% stake in Morgan Stanley. When you recall that Morgan Stanley has merged its retail brokerage with Citi's Smith Barney, you can see that MUFG could end up with a platform covering a good chunk of global GDP and with both retail and institutional investor bases.

Next, In its commercial banking operations, MUFG has also pleased analysts by replenishing its capital relatively...