Financial Services Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa on Tuesday welcomed moves by major banks to take loan-loss charges topping 6 trillion yen for the 2001 business year.
"That's a pretty big amount," he told reporters, noting the banks are now becoming more serious in preparation for a possible deterioration in their loan portfolios and for stricter inspections by the Financial Services Agency.
In their interim earnings reports released Thursday and Monday, 14 major banks said they would book a total of 6.44 trillion yen in loan-loss charges for the year to March 31 to clean up bad loans.