Jonan Shinkin Bank has asked six government-backed financial institutions to terminate their agent contracts, bank officials said Wednesday.
The nation's largest "shinkin" savings and loan bank, which offer services to mainly small and medium-size companies, said it wants to discontinue the contracts in accordance with the government's policy of reducing the roles of the government-backed lenders.
Jonan Shinkin said another reason for its decision was it has not offered loans on behalf of the government-affiliated financial institutions, which include National Life Finance Corp. and Government Housing Loan Corp., for several years.
Jonan Shinkin is the first commercial bank to ask the institutions to terminate agent contracts, an NLFC official said.
State-backed lenders' loans arranged by commercial lenders peaked during the strong economic growth of the 1950s to 1970s, and has declined since. NLFC loans through commercial lenders have accounted for only 1 percent of its total annual lending in recent years.