Ashikaga Bank appears to be on the brink of becoming Japan's second bank this year to receive an injection of taxpayer money, sources said Friday.
A recent inspection by the Financial Services Agency showed that the bank, part of Ashikaga Financial Group Inc., was in a state of negative net worth at the March 31 end of fiscal 2002. The FSA notified the group of the results on Thursday.
Over the weekend, the FSA will order Ashikaga Bank to submit its earnings report for the first half of fiscal 2003, sources said. The bank was to have reported those results already.