Tokyo: Five major Japanese banks said Friday that they will raise their fixed housing loan rates in January, in light of a rise in long-term government bond yields reflecting a policy revision by the Bank of Japan.

The banks will raise their standard rates for 10-year housing loans by 0.10 to 0.34 percentage point.

The standard rate will hit 3.70 pct at MUFG Bank and 3.79 pct at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., both their highest levels since October 2013, as well as 3.50 pct at Mizuho Bank, its highest since November 2011.

Based on the standard rate, the prime 10-year loan rate will stand at 1.40 pct at Mizuho, 1.39 pct at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, 1.18 pct at Resona Bank, 1.14 pct at Sumitomo Mitsui and 1.05 pct at MUFG.

At its policy meeting this month, the BOJ raised the upper limit it tolerates for the benchmark 10-year government bond yield to 0.5 pct from 0.25 pct.

Meanwhile, the banks will leave unchanged their interest rates on floating-rate housing loans, which are believed to account for around 70 pct of all outstanding housing loans, after the central bank decided to maintain its short-term interest rate target at minus 0.1 pct.

JIJI Press