Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan (LTCB) President Tsuneo Suzuki speaks to reporters at the Tokyo Stock Exchange October 23 after the troubled bank applied to be nationalised temporarily under a new bank rehabilitation scheme. Suzuki blamed the bank's downfall on its non-performing property-related loans, and said LTCB had made utmost efforts to dispose of loans that turned sour after Japan's economic bubble burst in the early 1990s. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi accepted LTCB's request to be nationalised.

ES/JIR