The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly voted Tuesday to pass the fiscal 2004 budget, including an outlay of 100 billion yen for a new bank that the metropolitan government plans to found in 2005.

The assembly also approved a motion mandating that the metropolitan government manage the risks associated with the operations of the new bank, which it hopes to set up as early as April 2005. It is tentatively called New Bank Tokyo.

Gov. Shintaro Ishihara has long pledged to create the bank.