Most of the 21 banks that have qualified for an injection of public funds, including the 17 approved by the Cabinet on March 17, plan to pay their executives 20 million yen or more a year.

The figures are part of the banks' voluntary restructuring plans submitted to an in-house committee of the government-backed Deposit Insurance Corp. The documents were released to the press after the Cabinet granted its approval.

Since a total of 1.8 trillion yen in taxpayers' money will be used to boost the banks' capital bases, public criticism is likely to increase over the lack of effort to cut costs. The 21 banks, including nine major city banks, each expect to have between 19 and 69 executives at the end of this month. Most of the banks announced in their reports that they plan to decrease those numbers over next three years. Still, full-time executives at most of these banks will receive at least 20 million yen in fiscal 2000, rising to 37 million yen in the case of Tokai Bank.

Some banks, including Tokai, said the estimated figures do not reflect a substantial reduction in the average pay because the makeup of the executive boards will change. The largest institution, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, plans to decrease the number of its executives from 69 to between 40 and 50. It said the average pay for full-time executives will remain at 29 million yen.