But the 11 banks said they still had 8,900 billion yen in non-performing loans on their books, up five percent from a year earlier.

The crisis has obviously depressed earnings and the number of non-performing loans soared.

The £95m improvement in non-performing loans would pay for these allowances for the next 100 years.

As a result, Norwest saw its non-performing loans increase 500 percent from 1983 to 1984, to more than $500 million.

This credit crunch is due to the non-performing loans extended by the banks to business tycoons and top government officials.

The government has set deadlines for the banks to reduce their non-performing loans and stockholdings.

Over the year the total of their non-performing loans rose by 32%, against 26% for the money-centre banks.

As a result, banks face a higher rate of non-performing loans from this sector.

A similar crisis of non-performing loans paralyzed the American savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

A bad quality loan has a higher probability of becoming a non-performing loan with no return.