Japan's sub-prime losses double

Mizuho is one of the banks to report sub-prime losses

Losses suffered by Japanese financial firms from the US sub-prime loan crisis more than doubled in the last three months of 2007, figures show.

The total reached 600bn yen (£2.8bn; $5.6bn) by the year's end official figures show, from the 276bn yen reported in September.

The data, from Japan's financial watchdog the Financial Services Agency (FSA), is in line with expectations.

The losses are small compared with the hits taken by US and European banks.

Japan's FSA said that the country's financial institutions held 1.519 trillion yen of sub-prime related products, up from 1.4 trillion yen in September.

Last month, the top two lenders in Japan, Mizuho Financial Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, said they expected sub-prime losses for the 12 months to March 2008 to be a combined 490bn yen.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the country's third-largest lender, has reported losses of 67bn yen for the October to December period.