Press Conference by the Minister for Financial Services

(Excerpt)

January 16 , 2004

Q.

An inquiry was held yesterday during Diet recess on the Ashikaga Bank problem. Mr. Akio Okuyama, President of the Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants (JICPA), stated that he is inclined to create a team within JICPA to investigate the gap between audits and inspections to identify and examine the situation. Although the existence of the gap itself is not surprising, considering that inspections and audits are different by nature and purpose, the gap should be minimal. Is the Financial Services Agency considering any measures to fill up the gap?

A.

As it is basically being considered by Certified Public Accountants and JICPA who perform the audits from an independent standpoint, we are in no position to comment.

In any case, we will conduct inspections for the purpose of supervising banks. Although audits and inspections have different frameworks and purposes, it is important to have the inspection results reflected in the closing of accounts and other areas in various ways. In light of this, the fact that JICPA is making various efforts from a truly independent standpoint is extremely desirable and appreciated.