A task force within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has decided to further delay until at least the end of this month a final decision on whether to merge the Export-Import Bank of Japan and the Japan Development Bank due to strong resistance from concerned parties, party sources said June 13.
The LDP originally planned to announce in early May a reform package of governmental financial institutions which include the Ex-Im Bank and the JDB. It later said it would come up with the package by the June 18 end of the current Diet session.
The LDP once leaned toward an integration of the Ex-Im Bank and the JDB by nullifying a 1995 Cabinet decision to combine the Ex-Im Bank and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund. In the meantime, Hiroshi Yasuda, president of the Ex-Im Bank, cautiously avoided making it clear whether he supports the idea of making the bank and the JDB into one institution, repeatedly saying that the decision is in the hands of the LDP and the government.