'I regret that we have failed to meet expectations," Yasumasa Nishi, CEO of ShinGinko Tokyo said Friday as he announced his resignation. Nishi also stated that the bank, created two years ago by the Tokyo metropolitan government with an investment of 100 billion yen, had incurred a massive deficit of 54.7 billion yen in the fiscal year that ended in March.

In just two years, the bank racked up accumulated losses of about 84.9 billion yen. This means Tokyo taxpayers have lost most of their initial investment.

When Nishi was first brought in, his experience with Toyota Motor Corp. was emphasized, and he was called a manager with shrewd business sense. But his resignation speech didn't indicate that he realized the extent of his responsibility to his investors--the people of Tokyo.

ShinGinko's creation resulted from an election promise made by Governor Shintaro Ishihara when he ran for his second term in 2003. From the start, it was obvious the bank was not economically feasible. Today Ishihara says: "The idea may have been mine, but the management should be responsible." He talks as if he has no accountability in this financial debacle. The bank was envisioned to help small and medium-sized enterprises survive amid credit crunch or forcible withdrawal of lending by the commercial banks....more...