Resona (
りそな,
TSE 8308) is one of the new
Japanese megabanks. It was initially formed in
2001 as a holding company for
Daiwa Bank, but later acquired
Asahi Bank in a huge
merger that placed it in the same league as
Mizuho,
Mitsubishi Tokyo,
SMBC, and
UFJ.
In March 2003, Resona revealed that its capital adequacy ratio had fallen below the legal floor of four percent. On May 19, 2003, the Japanese government gave Resona a ¥2 trillion ($16 bn) bailout, and took majority control of the company in the form of preferred stock. Under the rules of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, no company can be publicly traded if a single investor owns more than 75% of its stock: the government stake in Resona is lower than this, so the company remains on the market.
Auditors have cleared the other megabanks, so early fears of a large-scale bank nationalization wave have been somewhat assuaged. However, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan has criticized the deal as too little, too late, while the entire financial industry in Japan aches.