What’s New on the FSA Website

Week of September 14, 2020 - September 25, 2020

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

Press Conferences

September 18, 2020	Press Conference by the Minister for Financial Services (August 28, 2020) Japanese version

Public Comments

(The following public comment is available in Japanese)

September 18, 2020

Publication of the finalized "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 finalized the "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 amendments mainly: (1)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 (2)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.

Press Releases

(The following press releases are available in English)

Securities

September 24, 2020	Emergency Registration Exemption for Foreign Financial Institutions / Asset Managers（Temporary relief to address overseas business disruptions due to disaster or other reasons）

 

Others

September 23, 2020	Stewardship Code : 286 institutional investors have signed up to the Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors as of August 31, 2020

 

(The following press releases are available in Japanese)

Councils

September 28, 2020	Publication of the proceedings and handouts of the 48th meeting of the Audit Standard Committee of the Business Accounting Council <Summary> The FSA published the proceedings and handouts of the 48th meeting of the Audit Standard Committee of the Business Accounting Council, which was held on September 29, 2020.
September 24, 2020	Publication of the proceedings and handouts of the first meeting of the "Working Group on Japanese Banking System" of the Financial System Council <Summary> The FSA published the proceedings and handouts of the first meeting of the "Working Group on Japanese Banking System" of the Financial System Council, which was held on September 30, 2020.

 

Securities

September 18,2020

Administrative action against Saxo Bank Securities Ltd. (The Kanto Local Finance Bureau) <Summary> The Kanto Local Finance Bureau took an administrative action against Saxo Bank Securities Ltd., ordering the improvement of its business operations pursuant to the "Financial Instruments and Exchange Act" and the "Act on the Protection of Personal Information." This administrative action is based on the findings mainly from the statutory incident report pertaining to the entity's customer-data breach, which was submitted by the entity pursuant to the said Acts. The entity's system risk management structure as well as its management structure for outsourced contractors were found to be insufficient in terms of customer protection.

September 17,2020

Request statement to financial institutions that provide online trading services to conduct self-assessment/inspection of their system risk management structures as well as to check for any cyber incidents including unauthorized withdrawals and data breaches, linked with their online trading services <Summary> The FSA issued a statement requesting the relevant financial associations* to ensure that their member financial institutions (which provide online trading services) to conduct self-assessment/inspection of their system risk management structures as well as to check for any cyber incidents, including unauthorized withdrawals and data breaches,  linked with their online trading services. The request statement was issued in response to the recent series of cyber incidents** linked with online trading services targeted at service users of online trading service providers.   *     Including the Japan Securities Dealers Association (JSDA) and the Financial Futures Association of Japan (FFAJ) **   In which a malicious third party or third parties illegally accessed (logged in to) financial institutions' systems and sold financial assets owned by service users without permission, having deposited the cash from the liquidated assets to fictitious deposit accounts to make unauthorized withdrawals (of the liquidated assets), while such cash deposits are primarily destined to the accounts designated/registered by the service users for authorized withdrawals.

 

Insurance

September 17,2020	Results of the survey on insurance companies' efforts/initiatives taken to ensure that accessibility services are offered to their customers with disabilities <Summary> The FSA published the results of the survey on insurance companies' efforts/initiatives taken to ensure accessibility for their customers with disabilities (as of March 31, 2020).
September 17,2020	Administrative action against LIFEAID SSI Co., Ltd, (The Hokkaido Local Finance Bureau) <Summary> The Hokkaido Local Finance Bureau took an administrative action against LIFEAID SSI Co., Ltd., ordering the suspension of the entity's entire business operations (in terms of providing short-term insurance services, except for certain services that are exempted from a suspension of operations by the FSA from the customer-protection perspective), from October 12, 2020, to April 11, 2021, and the improvement of its business operations pursuant to the “Insurance Business Act.” This administrative action is based on the findings from the FSA's on-site inspection and subsequent mandatory report filed by LIFEAID SSI Co., Ltd.
September 15,2020	Authorization granted to ipet Holdings, Inc. to become an insurance holding company by having an insurance company as its subsidiary <Summary> The FSA granted authorization to ipet Holdings, Inc. to become an insurance holding company by having an insurance company as its subsidiary, pursuant to the "Insurance Business Act."

 

Others

September 25,2020	Updated one-stop access to the information on "Meetups on Tsumitate NISA (Dollar-Cost Averaging NISA)" <Summary> The FSA updated the one-stop access pertaining to "Meetups on Tsumitate NISA (Dollar-Cost Averaging NISA)" on the subpages of the "NISA Official Promotion Webpage." The one-stop access mainly provides the background information of the meetups with its key purpose and objectives as well as the schedule information on future meetups (online meetups included).
September 25,2020	Publication of the draft amendments to the "Principles for Customer-Oriented Business Conduct," "Comprehensive Guidelines for Supervision of Financial Instruments Business Operators," and "Comprehensive Guidelines for Supervision of Insurance Companies" <Summary> The FSA published the draft amendments to the "Principles for Customer-Oriented Business Conduct," "Comprehensive Guidelines for Supervision of Financial Instruments Business Operators," and "Comprehensive Guidelines for Supervision of Insurance Companies." The proposal mainly intends to reflect the contents of the "Report of the Working Group on Financial Markets of the Financial System Council – Toward the Enhancement of Financial Institutions' Customer-Oriented Business Conduct" (provisional English report title) published in August 2020 by the said Working Group.
September 24,2020	Publication of the agenda and handouts of the second meeting of the "Study Group on Impact Investment" <Summary> The FSA published the agenda and handouts of the second meeting of the "Study Group on Impact Investment," which was held on September 3, 2020, co-hosted by the FSA and the National Advisory Board of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment. The Study Group meets regularly to deepen the understanding of "impact investment" among capital market participants and government authorities.
September 24,2020	Warning against unauthorized withdrawals <Summary> The FSA issued a warning against unauthorized withdrawals in response to the recent series of unauthorized withdrawals (by malicious third parties) linked with payment services provided by financial institutions.* While the recent series of unauthorized withdrawals are particularly reported to be related to payment services, it has also been reported that deposit account holders who use neither payment services nor internet banking services have fallen victim to unauthorized withdrawals mainly attributable to the use of stolen cash cards and personal information (including bank account numbers and PIN codes) by (fraudulent) third parties. The FSA urges people to check their bank accounts for any suspicious transactions conducted by possible malicious third parties and keep intact their personal account information, including PINs/passwords, and to report to (and/or consult with) their payment service providers (financial institutions) as well as the authorities (such as the Police and the FSA's Counseling Office for Financial Services Users) whenever any hint of fraudulence is detected. The FSA also alerts people to be aware of possible further scams taking advantage of the aforementioned incidents.   * Financial institutions that suffered from those unauthorized withdrawals have announced policies of providing full compensations to their service users who have fallen victim to such unauthorized withdrawals.
September 18,2020	Activities of the FSA's Counseling Office for Financial Services Users for the period between April 1 and June 30, 2020 <Summary> The FSA's Counseling Office for Financial Services Users offers a counseling service to respond to inquiries and comments from financial services users. Between April 1 and June 30, 2020, the counseling office received 17,361 inquiries and comments, a major increase from 9,644 cases in the previous quarter (between January 1 and March 31, 2020).
September 18,2020	Publication of the updated list of financial institutions signing up to the "Principles for Customer-Oriented Business Conduct" and publicizing their respective customer-oriented business conduct and KPIs (key performance indicators) (as of the end of June 2020) <Summary> The FSA updated the list of financial institutions signing up to the "Principles for Customer-Oriented Business Conduct" and publicizing their respective customer-oriented business conduct and KPIs (key performance indicators) inclusive of the common KPIs comparable across investment trust distributors by the end of June 2020 in order to visualize financial institutions' initiatives and efforts. The FSA aims at encouraging financial institutions to further "visualize" their customer-oriented business conduct.
September 18,2020	Publication of the monitoring results pertaining to financial institutions' implementation status of customer-oriented business conduct aimed at customers' sustainable asset building (as of the end of June 2020) <Summary> The FSA has been monitoring financial institutions from macro- and micro-perspectives as to whether their business approaches and initiatives reflect customer-oriented business conduct on a regular basis. To further ensure their "visualization" of such customer-oriented business approaches and initiatives from the external customer perspective, the FSA has published the updated monitoring results pertaining to financial institutions' implementation status of customer-oriented business conduct aimed at customers' sustainable asset building as of the end of June 2020.
September 17,2020	Publication of the FY 2019 Performance Evaluation Report <Summary> The FSA published the FY 2019 Performance Evaluation Report following evaluations pursuant to the "Government Policy Evaluations Act."
September 15,2020	Request to financial institutions including deposit-taking financial institutions and funds transfer service providers to take appropriate measures for (possible) unauthorized withdrawals from their service users' bank accounts linked with e-payment services <Summary> In response to the recent series of cyber incidents (including unauthorized withdrawals and data breaches) linked with e-payment services provided by funds transfer service providers, the FSA issued a request statement to financial institutions, including deposit-taking financial institutions and funds transfer service providers, via the relevant financial associations, to take appropriate measures for such possible cyber incidents in a timely and appropriate manner.