Japanese banks' excess funds sink to near 4-year low, curbing investment capacity

TOKYO, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Japanese banks' excess funds have fallen to a nearly four-year low as loan growth accelerates and deposit inflows slow, leaving lenders with less room to invest in assets such as government bonds, Nikkei Asia reported on Wednesday.

The gap between deposits and loans, a key measure of banks' surplus funds, shrank 3 percent from a year earlier to 329 trillion yen (2.07 trillion U.S. doll