By Junko Fujita, Takashi Umekawa and Takahiko Wada

TOKYO, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Japanese financial firm SBI Holdings Inc 8473.T has ambitions to revive struggling regional banks by taking stakes and pushing them into higher-margin businesses – a strategy that may get a boost from the country’s new prime minister.

Although regional lenders are dominant outside of Tokyo and other big cities, many are tied to areas where the population is ageing rapidly, and business has been hollowed out. The pandemic has deepened the pain after years of low-margin lending.

Yoshihide Suga has pledged to strengthen local economies and encourage regional banks to consolidate, a shakeup that many say is long overdue.

“If the government is going to focus on revitalising local economies, there absolutely will be a business opportunity in that,” SBI Chief Executive Yoshitaka Kitao said in an interview.

Kitao spoke to Reuters before Suga announced his