It also cut the senior debt ratings of Sumitomo Bank Ltd., Japan's second-largest lender, to "A3" from "A2."

City Federal is the second-largest lender taken over, behind Gibraltar Savings of Los Angeles.

The bank, Japan's second-largest lender, expects to lose 480 billion yen ($3.6 billion) in the fiscal year that ended last week, worse than the 150 billion yen loss it previously forecast.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, Japan's second-largest lender, will sell all its shares in the Goldman Sachs Group by tomorrow.

The second-largest black lender, with $238 million in assets, has taken the opposite approach.

German banks have been in the forefront of lending to the Soviet Union and are its second-largest lenders after the Japanese.

The bank, Japan's second-largest lender, said it lost 470 billion yen ($3.9 billion).

Today Commerzbank, Germany's second-largest lender, said it had written off almost €800m on its holdings of Greek bonds and had lost €687m in the third quarter.

Fidelity Investments Japan now has 5.16 percent of Sumitomo Mitsui, Japan's second-largest lender, according to documents filed with Japanese financial regulators.

Mr. Kuroyanagi said Mitsubishi had been in talks with the Chinese bank, the country's second-largest lender, but he refused to reveal more.