The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is beginning steps to establish a new bank to support small and medium-size companies in April 2005 by starting work on drawing up the details of its services, a task that will be completed by September.

Helping smaller firms in these economically troubled times may be a worthy goal, but there are concerns that the new bank's services will clash with those offered by other financial institutions.

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara outlined the new bank in late November, underlining its aim of extending financial support to smaller companies. The metropolitan government wants the bank to build up 1.9 trillion yen in assets in the first three years after its April 2005 launch, which would put it in the same league as midsize regional banks.