What’s New on the FSA Website

Week of June 29, 2020 - July 3, 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)

July 2, 2020	Publication of the finalized amendments to the regulatory notice designating rules to be stipulated in Article 23 (1) of the "Cabinet Office Order on Virtual Currency (Crypto-Asset) Exchange Service Providers" <Summary> The FSA finalized the amendments to the regulatory notice designating rules that are stipulated in Article 23 (1) of the "Cabinet Office Order on Virtual Currency (Crypto-Asset) Exchange Service Providers." The amendments mainly pertain to technical amendments to reflect the change of the title name of the “Practical Guidelines for Agreed Operating Proceedings Regarding Segregated Management of Customer’s Assets by Virtual Currency Exchange Service Providers” (provisional English title), in accordance with the enforcement of the "Act for Partial Revision of the Payment Services Act, etc., to Address the Diversification of Financial Transactions Based on Advances in Information Technology" (Act No.28 of 2019) (provisional English law title). The amended regulatory notice has been enforced since June 26, 2020.
June 30, 2020	Publication of the draft "Order to Amend the Order for Enforcement of the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Cooperatives Act," the draft "Cabinet Office Order to Amend the Ordinance for Enforcement of the Banking Act, etc.," and the draft amendments to the "Comprehensive Guidelines for Supervision of Insurance Companies" <Summary> The FSA published the draft "Order to Amend the Order for Enforcement of the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Cooperatives Act," the draft "Cabinet Office Order to Amend the Ordinance for Enforcement of the Banking Act, etc.," and the draft amendments to the "Comprehensive Guidelines for Supervision of Insurance Companies." The proposal mainly intends to provide amendments in response to requests for deregulation from the financial sector and relevant industry organizations.
June 30, 2020	Publication of the draft "Cabinet Office Order to Amend the Cabinet Office Order on Definitions Under Article 2 of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and the Cabinet Office Order to Amend the Cabinet Office Order on Restrictions on Securities Transactions" <Summary> The FSA published the draft "Cabinet Office Order to Amend the Cabinet Office Order on Definitions Under Article 2 of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and the Cabinet Office Order to Amend the Cabinet Office Order on Restrictions on Securities Transactions." The proposal mainly intends to: expand the eligibility for membership in an employee stock ownership plan in which the purchase of stock certificates that meet certain requirements is exempt from insider trading regulations, and make necessary updates to enable the creation of electromagnetic records of "agreements and plans for the sale, purchase, etc. of regulated securities of a listed company that were entered into or decided upon before material facts pertaining to the listed company were known" in regard to the exemption from insider trading regulations.
June 30, 2020	Publication of the finalized amendments to the regulatory notices of leverage ratio requirements <Summary> The FSA finalized the amendments to the regulatory notices of leverage ratio requirements. In light of the increasing impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the amendments mainly exclude the outstanding balance of financial institutions' current accounts at the Bank of Japan (BOJ) from the calculation of leverage ratio in order to maintain harmonization with the monetary policy implemented by the BOJ and the prudential regulations for banks and other financial institutions, in response to the request from the BOJ. Due to the uncertainty on the impact of COVID-19, the current minimum requirement of leverage ratio (3%) is maintained until the end of FY 2020. The amended regulatory notices alongside the relevant applicable comprehensive guidelines for supervision of relevant financial institutions have been enforced since June 30, 2020.

Press Releases

(The following press releases are available in English)

International 

July 3, 2020	At the FSB workshop on Policy Responses to COVID-19 - Introductory remarks by HIMINO Ryozo, Vice Minister for International Affairs

 

Publication

June 30, 2020	FSA publishes English translation of monthly magazine, Access FSA No.202

 

Others

July 3, 2020	Stewardship Code : 284 institutional investors have signed up to the Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors as of June 30, 2020
July 2, 2020	Updated list of issuers of gift certificates in repayment procedures based on the ’Payment Services Act’
June 29, 2020	Updated statistics of money lending business

 

(The following press releases are available in Japanese)

Councils

June 29, 2020	Publication of the agenda and handouts of the 29th meeting of the "Working Group on Financial Markets" of the Financial System Council <Summary> The FSA published the agenda and handouts of the 29th meeting of the "Working Group on Financial Markets" of the Financial System Council, which was held on June 29, 2020.

 

Banks

July 3, 2020	Updated list of support agencies for business innovation <Summary> The FSA published an updated list of support agencies for business innovation pursuant to the "Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises Business Enhancement Act, etc." (There were no financial institutions newly authorized this time).
June 30, 2020	Publication of a statistical report on financing by financial institutions for enterprises utilizing the "Guidelines for Personal Guarantee Provided by Business Owners" <Summary> The FSA published a statistical report on financing by financial institutions for enterprises utilizing the "Guidelines for Personal Guarantee Provided by Business Owners." The report reflects the period between October 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020. (The report is regularly published to further promote the utilization of the Guidelines).
June 30, 2020	Authorization of the merger of Japan Trustee Services Bank, Ltd., Trust & Custody Services Bank, Ltd., and JTC Holdings, Ltd. <Summary> The FSA authorized the merger of Japan Trustee Services Bank, Ltd., Trust & Custody Services Bank, Ltd., and JTC Holdings, Ltd. pursuant to the "Banking Act." The merger is scheduled on July 27, 2020, and the corporate name of the merged bank will be Custody Bank of Japan, Ltd.

 

Securities

July 3, 2020

Updated lists of entities that are operating financial instruments businesses without proper registration (The Kanto Local Finance Bureau) <Summary> The FSA and the Kanto Local Finance Bureau issued warnings to entities that are operating financial instruments businesses without proper registration. (See the updated lists of Japan-based entities* and foreign-based entities). * This list also includes the warned non-registered entities with untraceable/unidentified addresses.

June 29, 2020

Publication of the FSA's response to an inquiry made through "No Action Letter System," a system to seek a prior confirmation from the FSA on the application of laws and regulations <Summary> The FSA published its response as of June 26, 2020, to an inquiry dated May 28, 2020, from an inquirer about the exclusion from application of the insider trading regulation under the "Financial Instruments and Exchange Act" in regard to a certain tender offer of share certificates the inquirer intends to conduct. The inquiry was submitted to the FSA through the FSA's No Action Letter System, a system to seek prior confirmation from the FSA on the application of laws and regulations. (Please refer to the response details [available only in Japanese]).

 

Others

July 3, 2020	Summary of the ninth meeting of the "Networking Group on the corporate disclosure, financial reporting and audit of listed companies in Consideration of the Impact of the COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) Infection" (provisional English title) and the publication of a summary report of a series of meetings held so far <Summary> On July 2, 2020, the FSA held the ninth meeting of the "Networking Group on the corporate disclosure, financial reporting and audit of listed companies in Consideration of the Impact of the COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) Infection" (provisional English title) by way of audio-conferencing. The networking group members reflected on initiatives and approaches so far taken by the respective members since the establishment of the meeting, and on July 3, 2020, they published a summary report of a series of meetings held so far.
July 2, 2020	The second project selected for "Enterprise System and Frontrunner Support-Hub" <Summary> The FSA accepted an application from The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited as the second project which fulfilled all requirements for the FSA to provide its support through "Enterprise System and Frontrunner Support-Hub." The company intends to simultaneously accomplish new service development and operational efficiency through developing functionalities associated with service operations, external collaboration and data analysis in a cloud-based platform while leaving the core functions such as the management and storage of customers' data and contract data in the existing enterprise system.
June 30, 2020	Activities of the FSA's Counseling Office for Financial Services Users for the periods between October 1 and December 31, 2019 and between January 1 and March 31, 2020, respectively <Summary> The FSA's Counseling Office for Financial Services Users offers a counseling service to respond to inquiries and comments from financial services users. In the period between October 1 and December 31, 2019, the counseling office received 8,483 inquiries and comments, a decrease from 9,842 cases in the previous quarter (between July 1 and September 30, 2019); and in the subsequent period between January 1 and March 31, 2020, the counselling office received 9,644 cases, an increase from the previous quarter (between October 1 and December 31, 2019).
June 30, 2020	Publication of "Statistics of NISA and Junior NISA Accounts" as of December 31, 2019 (revised figures) <Summary> The FSA has published "Statistics of NISA and Junior NISA Accounts" (preliminary figures). As of December 31, 2019, there were approximately 13.6 million NISA accounts in total, and approximately 18.2 trillion yen (approximately 168.5 billion USD) was invested through the NISA accounts, among which, 297.6 billion yen (approximately 2.8 billion USD) was invested through approximately 1.9 million accounts of the Tsumitate NISA (Dollar-Cost Averaging NISA) which has started since January 2018.
June 30, 2020	Publication of the updated column entitled "Consideration of Key Components of Financial Literacy for Purchasing Financial Instruments (draft)" (provisional English titles) on the subpage of the "NISA Official Promotion Webpage" <Summary> The FSA published the updated column entitled "Consideration of Key Components of Financial Literacy for Purchasing Financial Instruments (draft)" (vol.3) (provisional English titles) on the subpage of the "NISA Official Promotion Webpage."
June 30, 2020	Publication of the updated regulatory notice of the "Mutual Fund for Tsumitate NISA (Dollar-Cost Averaging NISA)" to specify certain requirements <Summary> The FSA published the updated regulatory notice of the "Mutual Fund for Dollar-Cost Averaging NISA (individual saving account for periodic investment)" to specify certain requirements. The updates will be enforced from April 1, 2021 onwards.
June 29, 2020	New one-stop access to reports on the FSA's initiatives and approaches taken for the IT Governance and cybersecurity across the financial sector <Summary> The FSA has newly added a subpage to its website to provide subscribers with one-stop access to reports on the FSA's initiatives and approaches taken for IT Governance and cyber security across the financial sector. The subpage includes the latest publication (as of June 30, 2020) of the FSA's reports on "The Financial Sector Cybersecurity Report," the "Survey Report on IT Governance of Financial Institutions," and the "Analysis Report on Financial Institutions’ Computer System Failures" (provisional English titles), with other existing reports related to IT Governance and cyber security published by the FSA.