Press Conference by Taro Aso, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Minister of State for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

(Friday, February 24, 2017, 8:47 am to 8:52 am)

[Questions and answers:]

Q.

It was announced in January that the business integrations involving the Fukuoka Financial Group (FFG) and The Eighteenth Bank will each be pushed back six months due to the Japan Fair Trade Commission’s protracted review. I would first like to ask your views on this as Minister of State for Financial Services. In addition, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) is scheduled to hold a briefing on local financing in the bank’s hometown of Nagasaki on March 8. I think this briefing might help improve local understanding of business integration, and I would appreciate your comments on the significance and aims of the briefing.

A.

As your first question regards a specific case, we will refrain from commenting on it but, speaking more generally, it is only natural that business decisions regarding integration or reorganization be made voluntarily by the financial institutions involved. There have been some considerable declines in population in certain areas that will give rise to population disparities between places seeing population increases and decreases. Population variations have emerged on Kyushu as well, so we think that inventive steps must be taken to maintain the soundness of financial institutions. Briefings on local financial administration are held in various locations, and this briefing is intended to explain the FSA’s efforts and such to the residents of Nagasaki Prefecture.

 

 

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