Japan's big cities become magnets for inherited rural savings

TOKYO -- Major Japanese banks are vying for an estimated 58 trillion yen ($377 billion) in inherited bank deposits that are expected to move out of regional lenders over the next 30 years. Large money-center banks are eager to expand their deposit bases as interest rates begin to rise again, but their efforts could deal a serious blow to their much smaller rural rivals.

"We now offer a higher interest rate to those depositing their inherited money in our time deposits," said an executive at a credit association, also known as a shinkin bank, in Nara prefecture. "We are trying to make sure the money does not go to megabanks."