Officials of the Financial Services Agency on Monday exchanged views with senior executives of the nation's major banks regarding government plans to revitalize the financial sector.
The program, released late last month, outlines measures for banks to accelerate the disposal of their bad loans. Further details, such as how loans would be assessed and what sort of changes would be made to current accounting rules, will be mapped out by the end of this month.
According to agency officials, the two sides agreed that the content of working-level discussions between agency officials and bankers would be taken into consideration when hammering out the details of the plan.
"The big banks have a very large role to play (in the program)," said Tatsuya Ito, senior vice minister for financial affairs, "and we would like them to make efforts to work for the revival of both industry and finance as one."
Major banks have been at odds with Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka, who has demanded that financial institutions take a more aggressive approach to the bad-loan problem. The minister did not attend Monday's gathering due to his schedule.