Merger announced to create new debt-collection body

Kohei Nakabo (L), president of the Housing Loan Administration Corp., and Shigeru Mizuno (R), president of the Resolution and Collection Bank, shake hands Dec. 25 with Noboru Matuda (C), president of the government's Deposit Insurance Corp., after signing a contract for merger of their two organizations next April 1 to become a new government-backed debt collection body. The new corporation, aimed to facilitate clean up of the bad loans plaguing the Japanese financial system, is to be funded entirely by Deposit Insurance Corp. that bails out troubled banks. ==Kyodo