Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka on Tuesday hailed efforts by major banks to dispose of bad loans in the year that ended March 31.
Speaking a day after banks reported earnings for fiscal 2002, Takenaka said they made a "good start" in meeting the government target to halve the ratio of banks' bad loans against their total outstanding lending by March 2005.
"Under severe economic situations, the earnings results showed that (banks) made considerable efforts to put an end to the bad-loan problem," Takenaka said. "If they keep up disposing of soured loans at the current speed, they will meet our target."