Daiwa Bank and Sanwa Bank, two of the nation's city banks, will ask for 300 billion yen and 600 billion yen each in public funds under the provisions of the newly adopted bank recapitalization law, officials of the two banks said Thursday as they released their midterm earnings reports.

Most of Japan's 18 major banks plan to specify the amount of public funds they will request under the new law during news conferences they began to call Thursday for releasing their midterm financial results.

The two banks said they expect to go into the red when they close their books for the current fiscal year in March. The banks attributed the projections to active efforts to write off problem loans from their books and get ready for capital injections.