Assets have recently started to flow out of income-oriented investment trusts, a key driving force behind the shift from saving to investment in recent years. These outflows reflect structural...
I often receive inquiries about Japan's social security pension schemes from researchers and other interested parties overseas. In the course of responding to such inquiries, I felt that it...
Reinhart and Rogoff's 2008 study of financial crises over the past two centuries underlines the frequency of such events. In my two decades as a central banker we dealt...
Asset management companies' FY08 revenues apparently fell some 20% form FY07. With the asset management industry undergoing consolidation led by foreign financial institutions, Japanese asset management companies face the...
Amid the current economic crisis, regional banks should tailor their business models to their local markets in anticipation of government decentralization.
Japan’s experience with quantitative easing (“QE”) shows that an ultra-low-interest-rate policy leads to dysfunctional money markets. Specifically, it i) reduces transaction volume, ii) compresses credit and liquidity spreads, and...
It is important for financial institutions to reach an industry-wide consensus on methods for determining illiquid financial products’ fair value. Equally important is an understanding of mark-to-model valuation’s limitations...
Japan has imposed stricter restrictions on short-selling in the aim of stemming the equity market’s decline. However, even with such restrictions, equity prices have no prospect of rising unless...
Smart order routing is the key to success in the dark pool business. Its importance is likely to increase in tandem with growth in off-exchange trading and proliferation of...
Investment returns have deteriorated precipitously as a result of recent asset price declines. Most investment trust investors now have unrealized losses on their holdings. Investment trusts are unlikely to...