Repercussions from the subprime mortgage crisis epicentered in US continue to roil global securitization and, in turn, financial markets. Once widely hailed as a seminal financial innovation, securitization currently...
In FY07, the Japanese asset management business was hard-hit by the global equity market slump triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis. Nonetheless, Japan's asset management market still has huge...
Japan’s real estate investment market is in tumult. Property values are falling and the real estate industry has been beset by a spate of bankruptcies. Fundamentals, however, remain sound,...
In June 2008, the FSA published proposed revisions to its comprehensive guidelines for bank supervision. The revisions would strengthen risk management regulations in accord with Financial Stability Forum recommendations...
Household financial assets declined sharply in FY07. At first blush, households appear to have become more conservative in their asset allocation, increasing their holdings of time deposits. But households...
Japanese investment trusts are, on average, small in terms of assets, giving them substantial scope for improvement in efficiency. With new funds likely to continue to proliferate, investment trust...
We estimated DC pension plans' overall expected rate of return and, corroborating widespread concerns, found that roughly half of DC plan participants are virtually assured of under-performing the average...
A recent survey found that many corporate DC pension plan participants lack an adequate understanding of their DC scheme and that DC plan assets are still preponderantly invested principal-guaranteed...
SRI is not as prevalent among pension funds in Japan as in the US or Europe. Japanese pension funds would be well-advised to formulate explicit SRI policies to expand...
Investment trust inflows have fallen sharply since last summer in response to subprime woes and the J-SOX law's advent. Meanwhile, previously out-of-favor fund categories have seen a pickup in...