The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) is looking to build a capital-markets platform in Canada, with plans to hire as many as 10 people in Toronto to manage bond deals and stock sales by early next year. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that it is a significant shift for a Japanese bank which has kept a low profile in the country for decades. MUFG's Canadian strategy mirrors that in the United States, where the firm has been remaking its investment-banking unit to look more like bigger Wall Street rivals. The lender is among Japanese banks including Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group looking overseas for revenue and growth opportunities. The Tokyo-based financial firm, which has been in Canada for 63 years, accelerated its push into capital markets after receiving a domestic securities licence last year. MUFG has since landed some high-profile deals, including co-leading acquisition financing for Alimentation Couche-Tard and Canadian Natural Resources, and acting as joint book runner on Fortis's $2-billion bond sale. MUFG forecasts compound annual growth of 24 per cent for the three years through to March, 2018.