Nov. 5--TOKYO -- Japan's three major consumer finance companies on Thursday reported double-digit revenue declines for the April-September period as they tightened lending standards due to upcoming changes in regulations.

For the first six months of the current business year, Promise Co. said its revenue fell 12.9 percent from a year earlier to 175.72 billion yen, while Takefuji Corp. said its revenue dropped 35.6 percent to 66.21 billion yen. Acom reported a 15.9 percent drop in its revenue to 141.72 billion yen.

With the aim of preventing people from becoming heavily indebted, tighter lending regulations are to come into full effect in June, including a reduction in ceiling interest rates imposed on loans by consumer finance companies.

Under the new regulations, consumer finance companies will also be basically prohibited from lending a sum exceeding one-third of a borrower's annual income.

"Our business environment has rapidly become severe," Promise said in a statement, citing the tighter regulations, high expenses linked to reimbursements of overcharged interest on past contracts and recent difficulties in fundraising.

Acom said it is now projecting that it will fall into the red for the whole of fiscal 2009 ending next March with a group net loss of 11.4 billion yen, against a profit of 32.2 billion yen projected in May, due to repayments of overcharged interest and restructuring costs.

In the first half of fiscal 2009, Promise's net profit fell 22.9 percent to 9.59 billion yen while that of Acom plunged 90.6 percent to 2.44 billion yen.

Takefuji booked a net profit of 16.98 billion yen, up 240.9 percent, due mainly to smaller-than-expected expenses to deal with the reimbursement of overcharged interest.

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