Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG), Japan’s largest lender by assets, has reported its first quarterly loss in nearly a decade.

After booking a one-off charge on an Indonesian subsidiary, the group’s net loss came in at 25.7bn ($236m) in October-December. This compares with 221.4bn yen net profit in the same period a year earlier.

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The one-off charge of about 207.4bn yen ($1.9bn) by the banking unit was attributed to a drop in the share price of Bank Danamon.

MUFG’s trading division, however, reported a 276.7bn yen net operating profit in the nine months, up 35.2% year on year, supported by sales of foreign bonds.

MUFG, which is in the midst of a leadership transition, also cut its full-year outlook to a 750bn yen net profit from 900bn yen.

As the traditional lending business remained weak, MUFG’s net interest income came in at 1.38tn yen for the nine months through December, down 4.7% from a year earlier.

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The downside of monetary easing

Japanese banks have been struggling to boost profits under a policy of aggressive monetary easing that has seen the central bank guide short-term rates toward negative 0.1% and the 10-year government bond yield to around 0%.

MUFG’s rivals Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (SMFG) and Mizuho Financial Group reported increased profits last week.

SMFG reported an 8.3% rise in third-quarter profit, driven by a strong performance of its bond trading business. Mizuho said its net profit in the quarter more than doubled from a year earlier, due primarily to a recovery in market conditions.

SMFG and Mizuho also said their net interest income fell in the quarter.