[Minister in His Own Words]

This section provides information regarding the hot topics of the moment, selected from questions and answers given at the Minister's press conferences, etc.

If you wish to find out more, we invite you to visit the “Press Conferences” section of the FSA website.

A1. According to the financial results announced by the major banks (seven banking groups) by today, November 15, while the results vary from bank to bank, generally speaking, credit-related expenses declined and government bond-related income remained steady. On the other hand, gross financial margins and stock-related income decreased. Consequently, I understand that each group's net profit in the first half to the end of September exceeded its forecast.

The FSA will continue to carefully monitor the status of banks' management.

[Extract from the press conference following the Cabinet meeting on November 15, 2011]

A2. At least from the information I have received, the number of corporate failures has been declining because of the SME Financing Facilitation Act. Nevertheless, the global economic situation is very unfavorable, as indicated by the yen's recent strength, the European sovereign debt problem, and downside risk for the U.S. economy. In the case of Japan, the rising number of failures that you mentioned may be related to the yen's strength. In my electoral district, too, there are many export-dependent SMEs. Exchange market intervention has been conducted, and measures to deal with the yen's strength will be included in the third supplementary budget.

As I mentioned previously, the SME Facilitation Financing Act has been extended with unanimous support. Visiting various regions across Japan, I explained the SME Finance Facilitation Act to financial institutions and organizations representing SMEs and obtained political parties' understanding on the need to extend it. Needless to say, financial discipline is important. As the minister in charge of overseeing private financial institutions, I believe that the business principle of banks is that they take deposits from ordinary people, use the deposits as a fund source for loans and pay back the deposits with interest, as I frequently mention in the Diet. We enacted the Act on Special Measures for Strengthening Financial Functions and added special provisions for measures to deal with the damage done by the earthquake disaster. That was a natural thing to do. I will pause and reflect on what to do while taking account of various factors.

[Extract from the press conference following the Cabinet meeting on November 15, 2011]

A3. As for how we feel about the application by four Shinkin banks in the disaster areas for the use of the Act on Special Measures for Strengthening Financial Functions, which was enacted on June 22 this year with the unanimous support of all parties as you know, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) highly appreciates this move since it is expected to contribute to the smooth exercise of the financial intermediary function through the future toward post-earthquake reconstruction in each area.

In the future, we will actively and positively respond to requests for consultation from Shinkin banks about the use of this act in cooperation with Shinkin Central Bank, the central bank of Shinkin Banks, and the Tohoku Finance Bureau.

When the application has been filed, we will make efforts to examine it quickly in accordance with laws and regulations.

I visited the three disaster-stricken prefectures and met with the presidents of three of the four Shinkin Banks - Miyako Shinkin Bank, Ishinomaki Shinkin Bank and Abukuma Shinkin bank - and I have vivid memories of the painful situation of the disaster areas that they related to me. I hope that these Shinkin Banks will smoothly exercise their financial intermediary function as soon as possible. These financial institutions extend loans to small and medium-size enterprises and also provide housing loans as local financial institutions. For now, some moratorium has been granted for loan repayment. Yesterday, I am glad to say that a supplementary budget totaling around 12 trillion yen was passed. As it is said that a once-in-a-millennium tsunami occurred, I hope that financial institutions will smoothly exercise their financial intermediary function in their regions in times like this and in the future.

[Extract from the press conference following the Cabinet meeting on November 22, 2011]

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[ Press Releases in November ]

November 1	Access		Administrative Actions on MF Global FXA Securities, Ltd.
November 2	Access		Opinion Sharing Meeting and Revision Again of Current Action Plan on Fostering People who Passed the CPA Exam and Expanding their Fields of Activity
November 4	Access		Draft Government Ordinance and Cabinet Order etc. concerning the 2011 Financial Instruments and Exchange Act Revision (Enforced within One Year) published
	Access		Working Group on How to Regulate Group Management of Insurance Companies (6th) - program
November 7	Access		Financial System Council “Working Group on Insider Trading Regulations” (4th) - program
November 8	Access		“Basic Guidelines on Accounting of Small and Medium Enterprises (Draft)” published
November 10	Access		General Meeting of the Business Accounting Council and the Planning Coordination Subcommittee - program
November 11	Access		Results of the public comments on the Draft Government Ordinance and Cabinet Office Ordinance, etc. on the 2011 revision of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (Enforced within Six Months)
November 14	Access		Decision on penalty payment order for insider trading by a contractor with JustSystems Corporation
November 15	Access		One Year at the FSA (Program Year 2010)
November 17	Access		Administrative action against 121 Securities Co., Ltd.
	Access		42nd Financial Service Dispute Resolution Liaison Group held
	Access		Working Group on How to Regulate Group Management of Insurance Companies (7th) - program
November 21	Access		Financial System Council “Working Group on Medium and Long Term Approach of Japan's Financial Industry” - program
November 22	Access		Draft partial revision of “Comprehensive Guidelines for Supervision of Financial Instruments Business Operators, etc.” published
	Access		Draft partial revision of “Comprehensive Guidelines for Supervision of Insurance Companies” - Results of public comments, etc.
	Access		Draft Partial Revisions of Public Notices on Capital Adequacy Ratios of Financial Instruments Business operators, etc. - Results of public comments, etc.
	Access		Active Use of “Capital Type Borrowing”
November 24	Access		Draft partial revision of Administrative Guidelines (Volume 3: Finance Company Related) - Results of public comments, etc.
November 25	Access		Appointment and Dismissal of Financial System Council Members
November 28	Access		Working Group on How to Regulate Group Management of Insurance Companies (8th) - program
	Access		“Cabinet Office Ordinance for Partial Revision of the Cabinet Office Ordinance Specifying the Form of Identification Card, etc. that Needs to be Carried by the Official of Financial Services Agency, etc. Conducting Inspection” and “Order on Special Measure for Operations of the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan stipulated in the Act on the Great East Japan Earthquake Business Revitalization Support Corporation, Chapter 8” published
November 29	Access		“Draft Supervisory Guidelines and draft Financial Inspection Manual” - Results of public comments
November 30	Access		Update of the “Administrative Actions Casebook”
	Access		Administrative action (extension) against MF Global FXA Securities, Ltd.
	Access		Money lending business related documents updated
	Access		Number of debtors who halted contracted repayments since the Great East Japan Earthquake, and amount of such debts (as of the end of August)
	Access	is a link to the publication web page.

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Web Pages Most Accessed in November

This section shows the November Press Releases web pages which were accessed the most.

To see the web pages most accessed in the past, go to the FSA web site's Web pages most accessed (past data, etc.) (Available in Japanese only)

• Financial institutions being inspected by FSA
• List of licensed (registered) financial institutions
• Draft Government Ordinance and Cabinet Order etc. concerning the 2011 Financial Instruments and Exchange Act Revision (Enforced within One Year)
• Financial Facilitation Measures for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
• Opinion Sharing Meeting and Revision Again of Current Action Plan on Fostering People who Passed the CPA Exam and Expanding their Fields of Activity
• Names of unregistered financial instruments business operators
• Results of the public comments on the Draft Government Ordinance and Cabinet Office Ordinance, etc. on the 2011 revision of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (Enforced within Six Months)
• Personal identification in financial institutions
• Deposit insurance system
• Active Use of “Capital Type Borrowing”