One of the banks, Mizuho Financial Group, has been under fire after regulators last month reprimanded it for failing to terminate loans to members of organised crime syndicates for more than two years after discovering them. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc, the third largest lender in terms of asset, is the third bank on the list for inspection.

On Monday, Mizuho said that the chairman of its banking unit resign while its president will take a six-month pay suspension following a loans-to-mobsters scandal that has embroiled Japan's second-biggest lender by assets.

(Reporting by Noriyuki Hirata; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)