Japan is considering making its business banking model more flexible in order to take advantage of advances in financial technologies.
Japanese banks and regulators are showing concern that existing regulations mean that business bank holding companies cannot invest freely enough in IT ventures in the face of growing competition from alternative financial services.
They feel that Japan’s current banking model, based on traditional industrial finance, needs to be updated to deal with the growth of e-commerce and non-bank payment methods.
According to a Reuters source, the relaxation would also allow “bank holding companies allocate assets and functions more freely among subsidiaries”.
Regional banks might also find it easier to “hive off and integrate certain operations like asset management as they come under pressure to merge amid low growth prospects,” the report said.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency will start an official discussion on the rule changes in March, and the government could submit a bill early next year.
Whitepapers
Related reading
Central banks best suited to issue digital currencies
By Aaran Fronda A recent report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) said that central banks rather than private ... read more
Instant payments: innovations inbound for corporates
In 2020, instant payments look set to continue their current trajectory to become the biggest trend in payments. While these schemes already offer numerous benefits to corporates, leveraging innovations such as APIs and request to pay will go some way to unlocking their full potential, argues Michael Knetsch
Obstacles exist for banks to meet ECB’s instant payments goal
The cost of joining instant payment platforms will be one of many hurdles banks and payment services providers must overcome to meet ... read more
Banks must be aware of “biases” in data used to train ML models
Financial institutions need to be conscious of biases in the historical data that is being used to train machine learning (ML) models, ... read more
