Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 19th that banks will be able to acquire and hold virtual currencies including Bitcoin in Japan in the future. In other words, an environment will be created where individual investors can easily trade virtual currencies.
According to reports, the Japanese government is considering creating a system in which banks can buy and sell virtual currencies only for investment purposes.
The Financial Services Administration previously revised its supervisory guidelines to effectively ban banks from acquiring virtual currency for investment purposes, believing that banks could worsen their financial soundness if they hold a large number of virtual currencies with fluctuations in their amount in 2020. However, as cryptocurrency transactions spread inside and outside Japan, banks are trying to change their guidelines to allow banks to buy and sell virtual currencies as well as stocks and bonds. According to the Financial Services Administration, as of the end of February, there were about 12 million virtual currency accounts in Japan, an increase of about 3.5 times compared to five years ago.
The Financial Services Administration will also consider allowing banks to register as “virtual currency exchangers” necessary for providing virtual currency trading services. “We are trying to create an environment where it is easy for individual investors to invest by enabling high-credit banking groups to enter the (virtual currency market),” Yomiuri said.
However, the Financial Services Administration will also come up with regulations to prevent banks’ virtual currency trading from adversely affecting their financial soundness. The Financial Services Council, an advisory council for the prime minister, is expected to discuss the improvement of a system to manage virtual currency risk concerns.
SAM KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
