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

(Excerpt)

(Friday, November 8, 2013, 9:17 am to 9:45 am)

[Questions and answers]

Q.

I’d like you to tell us about measures to eliminate dealings with anti-social forces by financial institutions. What kind of cooperation you will be asking from the police from now on, as I understand that the police currently cooperate in collation of information on anti-social forces with securities companies through the Japan Securities Dealers Association. So will you also be asking cooperation in providing and collating information in relation to banks?

A.

Whom do you mean when you talk about asking cooperation, and from whom?

Q.

The FSA asking cooperation from the National Police Agency (NPA).

A.

If the FSA asks cooperation from the NPA, they will say one thing. Does the Japanese Bankers Association (JBA) have judicial person status?

Q.

I think it has judicial person status, but that it is not recognized as a self-regulatory organization by law.

A.

How about the securities industry?

Q.

The equivalent body is recognized as such in the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.

A.

That being the case, the securities industry has legislative duty. The situation with the securities industry is clearer. In that respect, the securities industry is ahead of the banking sector. There’s a guarantee, based on the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, that a duty of confidentiality will be strictly adhered to. Is there such a guarantee with the JBA? Even if you think this issue should be properly addressed, unless the JBA also creates a proper system, it will find it difficult to obtain similar information.

Q.

For example, might it be necessary to think about giving the JBA some kind of legal status under the Banking Act? Or should an organization other than the JBA be given this status?

A.

The banks are victims, but some newspapers were writing about the banks as though they were perpetrators, but in a sense, the banks are victims. For that reason, I think that the JBA should endeavor to take decisive action in order to protect itself and to prevent connections with anti-social forces developing in the first place.

(End)