Banking group Resona Holdings Inc., now undergoing rehabilitation, will turn down Saitama Gov. Kiyoshi Ueda's offer to invest 1 billion yen in taxpayer money into the locally operating Saitama Resona Bank, Chairman Eiji Hosoya said Wednesday.
"We have absolutely no intention of seeking additional funding from any source until we have completed our intensive rehabilitation phase, ending in March 2005," Hosoya said in a news conference.
Saitama Resona is considered the single healthy entity in the Resona Group, which the government shored up with 2 trillion yen in public funds six months ago.
Unlike the group's other branches, which continue to struggle under the weight of bad loans given to small businesses, Saitama Resona's strength lies in its retail business.
Hosoya said he will visit Ueda possibly Thursday to address the governor's concerns that local bankers are becoming increasingly out of touch with local businesses since Saitama Resona's creation as part of the nation's fifth-largest banking group.