Top representatives from Japan's ruling coalition parties yesterday harshly criticized a banking reform plan proposed by the economic policy minister, suggesting hard bargaining remains before the plan is released this week.
Taro Aso, policy chief for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), said the plan -- which includes cutting banks' capital and reorganizing their bad loan holdings -- would cause a credit crunch that would hurt small companies.
"Even if their businesses are superior, small and mid-sized companies will be the first to have their credit cut off because they are the easiest targets for banks," Aso said on a TV Asahi talk show.
Chief financial regulator Heizo Takenaka outlined details of the controversial banking plan to cabinet members and ruling coalition party heads late Friday.
Takenaka told his audience he wanted to make tax accounting standards at banks more in line with those in the US, a measure that would result in slashing banks' capital adequacy levels to below international standards, said the head of the LDP's tax panel Hideyuki Aizawa.
Takenaka also described the issue of using strict discounted-cashflow accounting procedures to assess more accurately the state of problem loans and separate out good loans from bad, Aizawa said.
Aizawa said Sunday the plan would force banks to drastically shrink their loan portfolios rather than stimulate new lending.
Takeshi Noda, leader of the coalition partner New Conservative Party, criticized an aspect of the plan that threatened greater government control over banks by converting preferred shares it received for previous bank bailouts into common stock with voting rights. "If the major banks are nationalized there will be a great loss of trust, and bad loans will pile up further," Noda said on the Fuji TV program.
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