Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc plans to purchase the US real estate loan business of the Deutsche Bank Group for about $3.7 billion, news reports said Monday.

The move, through MUFG’s US subsidiary Union Bank NA, is to address a predicted recovery in the US real estate market and a lagging domestic loan business, Kyodo News Agency reported, citing unnamed sources close to the matter.

An MUFG spokesman declined to comment.

Japanese banks, which have relatively strong financial bases, are expected to increase their acquisition of overseas operations, Kyodo said.