The Finance Ministry strongly urged Nippon Life Insurance Co. to provide financial support to Nippon Credit Bank, currently under state control, in the spring of 1997, Nippon Life Vice President Tsuyoshi Nahara said Tuesday.
In unsworn testimony before the day's Upper House Budget Committee session, Nahara said the ministry requested his firm help NCB increase its capital and said that if Nippon Life failed to extend its support, NCB would collapse and endanger the overall financial system. "We received a strong request from the Finance Ministry and we regarded the ministry's involvement to be significant," Nahara said.
NCB, which was placed under government control in December, asked the nation's major financial institutions to provide funds worth 210 billion yen to increase its capital in April 1997 as part of its reconstruction efforts.