What’s New on the FSA Website

Week of  April 22, 2019 - April 26, 2019

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

Press Conferences

April 24, 2019	Press Conference by the Minister for Financial Services (March 27, 2019) (Available in Japanese)
April 24, 2019	Press Conference by the Minister for Financial Services (March 26, 2019) Japanese version

Public Comments

(The following public comments are available in Japanese)

April 26, 2019	Publication of the finalized “Cabinet Office Order to Amend the Regulation on Terminology, Forms and Preparation Methods of Financial Statements and Consolidated Financial Statements”  < Summary> The FSA finalized the “Cabinet Office Order to Amend the Regulation on Terminology, Forms and Preparation Methods of Financial Statements and Consolidated Financial Statements,” following the publications of revised accounting standards by ASBJ (published in January 2019). The amended Cabinet Office Order was enforced on April 26, 2019.
April 26, 2019	Publication of the finalized amendments to the “Order for Enforcement of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act”  < Summary> The FSA finalized the amendments to the “Order for Enforcement of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.” Among securities transactions conducted on foreign financial instruments markets, with regard to transactions that are considered not detrimental to investor protections even while securities obtained therein are not purchased by means of tender offers, the amendments add such transactions to the category of transactions where share certificates are not required to be purchased by means of tender offers as stipulated in the “Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.” The amended Order was enforced on April 29, 2019.
April 25, 2019	Publication of the updated regulatory notice designating certain transactions pertaining to the adoption of substituted compliance based on equivalence assessment regarding margin requirements for non-centrally cleared OTC derivatives  < Summary> The FSA updated the regulatory notice designating certain transactions pertaining to the adoption of substituted compliance based on equivalence assessment regarding margin requirements for non-centrally cleared OTC derivatives. This regulatory notice prescribes a framework of substituted compliance for avoiding duplicative application of Japanese and foreign margin requirements. This framework allows financial instruments business operators etc. to exchange initial and variation margin in complying with foreign margin rules provided that such rules are deemed equivalent to the corresponding rules in Japan and enforced by the foreign authorities appropriately supervising the transaction parties. Based on the dialogue between the FSA and foreign authorities, the regulatory notice designates the foreign margin rules applicable to the countries newly designated under the European Economic Area Agreement as rules deemed equivalent to the corresponding margin rules of Japan, in addition to the formerly designated foreign margin rules that are respectively under jurisdiction of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI Canada), the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The regulatory notice was promulgated and enforced on April 25, 2019.

Press Releases

(The following press releases are available in English)

Others

April 25, 2019	Updated statistics of money lending business
April 25, 2019	Updated list of issuers of gift certificates in repayment procedures based on the “Payment Services Act”
April 24, 2019	Publication of the "Recommended Directions for Further Promotion of Corporate Governance Reform"
April 23, 2019	Overview of Financial System Issues for the 2019 G20 Japan Presidency - speech by Shunsuke Shirakawa

(The following press releases are available in Japanese)

Councils

April 24, 2019	Publication of the agenda and handouts of the 22nd meeting of the “Working Group on Financial Markets” of the Financial System Council  < Summary> The FSA published the agenda and handouts of the 22nd meeting of the “Working Group on Financial Markets” of the Financial System Council, which was held on April 24, 2019.
April 22, 2019	Publication of the agenda and handouts of the 10th meeting (in the program year 2018) of the “Study Group on the Financial System” under the Financial System Council  < Summary> The FSA published the agenda and handouts of the 10th meeting (in the program year 2018) of the “Study Group on the Financial System” under the Financial System Council, which was held on April 22, 2019.

Banks

April 26, 2019

Information sharing on cases regarding unauthorized use of bank accounts  < Summary> The FSA and local finance bureaus provide information regarding unauthorized use of bank accounts to relevant financial institutions and law enforcement authorities after obtaining consents from informants. The FSA has published statistics that include the number of information sharing on cases regarding unauthorized use of bank accounts until March 31, 2019 since September 2003, along with the corresponding actions taken by financial institutions.

April 24, 2019

Publication of an outline of the financial institutions’ policies on cooperation and collaboration with electronic settlement agents  < Summary> Financial institutions have prepared and published their respective policies on cooperation and collaboration with electronic settlement agents by March 1, 2018 pursuant to Article 10 (1) of the supplementary provisions of the “Act for Partial Revision of the Banking Act (Act No. 49 of 2017)” which stipulates that financial institutions shall prepare and disclose their basic policies regarding their cooperation and collaboration with electronic settlement agents within nine months from the date of promulgation of the Act (promulgation date: June 2, 2017). In this regard, on April 24, 2019, the FSA published a summary of the respective financial institutions’ current implementation status (as of March 29, 2019) based on their respective policies on cooperation and collaboration with electronic settlement agents, particularly in terms of the API (Application Programming Interface) development.

Others

April 24, 2019

Publication of the opinion statement by the “Council of Experts Concerning the Follow-up of Japan’s Stewardship Code and Japan’s Corporate Governance Code”  < Summary> The “Council of Experts Concerning the Follow-up of Japan’s Stewardship Code and Japan’s Corporate Governance Code” published the opinion statement No.4: “Recommended Directions for Further Promotion of Corporate Governance Reform.”