What’s New on the FSA Website

Week of February 17, 2020 - February 21, 2020

This page contains the latest in events, developments, and updates to the FSA website.

Public Comments

(The following public comments are available in Japanese)

February 20, 2020

Publication of the draft "Cabinet Office Order to Amend the Cabinet Office Order on Financial Instruments Business" <Summary> The FSA has proposed the draft "Cabinet Office Order to Amend the Cabinet Office Order on Financial Instruments Business." In order to improve transparency in dark pool trading, the proposal mainly intends to require financial instruments business operators to develop institutional capacity and framework to: (1) clarify the terms and conditions of routing transaction orders to dark pools as well as information on managing routing paths and the specifics therein; and (2) record and store information to ensure the effectiveness of price improvement in dark pool trading.

February 17, 2020

Publication of the draft amendments to the regulatory notice designating cases for the provision of specific personal information where financial business operators (financial institutions) are required when the FSA deems necessary, and designating specific personal information that is to be provided to corporate bond issuers pursuant to the provisions of Article 62 of the "Order on Book-Entry of Company Bonds, Shares, etc." <Summary> The FSA has proposed the draft amendments to the regulatory notice designating cases for the provision of specific personal information where financial business operators (financial institutions) are required when the FSA deems necessary, and designating specific personal information that is to be provided to corporate bond issuers pursuant to the provisions of Article 62 of the "Order on Book-Entry of Company Bonds, Shares, etc." The proposal intends to allow book entry transfer agencies to provide specific personal information to their contractors (including corporate bond issuers) only when such information is obtained from the Japan Agency for Local Authority Information Systems.

Press Releases

(The following press releases are available in English)

International 

February 21, 2020	FSA hosted the IOSCO Committee on Issuer Accounting, Audit and Disclosure (Committee 1) meeting

 

Councils

February 21, 2020	International Forum of Independent Audit Regulators published the Report on 2019 Survey of Inspection Findings
February 17, 2020	Publication of Final Report by the Expert Study Group on Capital Markets in Japan of the Financial System Council

 

Banks

February 21, 2020	FSA publishes the status of loans held by all banks as of the end of September 2019, based on the Financial Reconstruction Act

 

Others

February 21, 2020	FSA publishes English version of Reference Cases on Suspicious Transactions
February 18, 2020	Stewardship Code : 277 institutional investors have signed up to the Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors as of February 14, 2020

 

(The following press releases are available in Japanese)

Securities

February 21, 2020

Administrative actions against the two notifiers of specially permitted business for qualified institutional investors (SPBQII) with whom the Kanto Local Finance Bureau cannot make contact <Summary> The Kanto Local Finance Bureau took administrative actions against the two notifiers of specially permitted business for qualified institutional investors (SPBQII) with whom the Kanto Local Finance Bureau cannot make contact, ordering the abolition of the notifiers' entire specially permitted businesses for qualified institutional investors and the improvement of their business operations pursuant to the "Financial Instruments and Exchange Act."

 

Others

February 21, 2020

Publication of "Statistics of NISA and Junior NISA Accounts" as of December 31, 2019 (preliminary figures) <Summary> The FSA has published "Statistics of NISA and Junior NISA Accounts" (preliminary figures). As of December 31, 2019, there were approximately 13.7 million NISA accounts in total, and approximately 18.7 trillion yen (approximately 167.4 billion USD) was invested through the NISA accounts, among which, 297.3 billion yen (approximately 2.7 billion USD) was invested through approximately 1.9 million accounts of the Tsumitate NISA (Dollar-Cost Averaging NISA) which has started since January 2018.

February 19, 2020

Request for measures to prevent the spread of Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) <Summary> The FSA has issued a statement entitled "Measures to Prevent the Spread of Novel Coronavirus (nCoV)" (provisional English title) to financial institutions (including bankers associations, etc.). The statement requests that financial institutions be attentive and responsive to nCoV-related updates from state and local governments, and flexibly create a work place environment in which employees can flexibly take time off to avoid becoming infected with or spreading nCoV by staggering employees' working hours and encouraging telework (telecommuting).