A law to merge two quasigovernmental banks — Japan Development Bank and Hokkaido-Tohoku Development Finance Public Corp. — was enacted Friday, paving the way for creating a new developmental financial institution on Oct. 1.

The new entity will be called Japan Development Bank, retaining the name of the existing, more powerful partner. Its Japanese name, however, will become Nihon Seisaku Toshi Ginko instead of Nihon Kaihatsu Ginko, as today's JDB is called.

Combined outstanding assets of the two existing banks stood at 19.18 trillion yen as of the end of March 1999.

The new JDB is expected to start with capital worth 823.7 billion yen and a total of 1,387 staffers.