Change of the formats of "Sources of Changes in Current Account Balances at the Bank of Japan and Market Operations" and other statistics

May 24, 2006
Financial Markets Department
Bank of Japan

The Bank of Japan will change the formats of "Sources of Changes in Current Account Balances at the Bank of Japan and Market Operations (Updated every business day)" and other statistics.  In addition, the Bank will provide more information which is released at the regular time of same-day settlement operations offered at around 9:20 a.m.

The details are as follows.

1. Change of the formats of "Sources of Changes in Current Account Balances at the Bank of Japan and Market Operations (Updated every business day)" and other statistics

(1) Sources of Changes in Current Account Balances at the Bank of Japan and Market Operations (Updated every business day

The Japan Post, which was established in April 2003, is not subject to the reserve requirement system, but has a similar obligation under the contract with the Bank to maintain a designated minimum amount of current account balances at the Bank.  Reflecting this treatment, the deposit of the Japan Post has been included in the following items.

Net change in current account balances

Current account balances

Reserve balances

Held by institutions that have satisfied reserve requirements for the current period

Excess reserves

Held by institutions that have NOT satisfied reserve requirements for the current period

Required reserves for the current maintenance period (cumulative total)

Required reserves for the current maintenance period (daily average)

Remaining required reserves (cumulative total)

Remaining required reserves (daily average)

As the current account balances as a whole at the Bank approach the required reserves, under the current disclosure of information, it will become difficult for market participants to estimate whether the amount of funds held by institutions subject to the reserve requirement system is sufficient if other institutions hold a large amount of current account balances.  Therefore, in order to make it easier for market participants to estimate the supply and demand of funds in the market, the Bank will disclose the reserves balances held by institutions subject to the reserve requirement system, which are less likely to fluctuate.  The Bank will start releasing the statistics under the new format from the June 2006 maintenance period (from June 16 to July 15).

Consequently, the deposit of the Japan Post will continue to be included in "Net change in current account balances" and "Current account balances," but will be excluded from "Reserve balances" and other items mentioned above.  In addition, the Bank will rename "Current account balances held by institutions NOT subject to reserve requirements" to "Current account balances held by OTHER institutions," and include the deposit of the Japan Post in this new item.  Please note that the Bank will not revise the past statistics.

(2) Sources of Changes in Current Account Balances at the Bank of Japan and Market Operations (Preliminary Figures, Final Figures and Long-Term Time-Series Data

The Bank will change the listed monthly statistics from the June 2006 version in line with the change described in (1).  The deposit of the Japan Post will continue to be included in "Net change in current account balances" and "Current account balances," but will be excluded from "(Reference) Net change in reserve balances" and "(Reference) Reserve balances."  The Bank will insert new item named "(Reference) Net change in reserve balances and the deposit of the Japan Post" and "(Reference) Reserve balances and the deposit of the Japan Post," in which the deposit of the Japan Post will be included.  The name of the item listed in the "Long-Term Time-Series Data" will also be changed in line with the change of the monthly data.  The past figures of the "(Reference) Reserve balances" will be listed from the June 2005 figure.

(3) Figures on Reserves

The deposit of the Japan Post has been included in "Reserve balance (A)," "Required reserves (B)," "Reserve balance (C)," and "Required reserves (D)" in this statistics.

From the June 2006 maintenance period, the Bank will change the name of the items mentioned above to "Reserve balance, etc. (A)," "Required reserves, etc. (B)," "Reserve balance, etc. (C)," and "Required reserves, etc. (D)" respectively, in which the deposit of the Japan Post will be included.  Accordingly, the Bank will rename "Reserves of financial institutions subject to the reserve requirement system" to "Reserves of financial institutions subject to the reserve requirement system and the deposit of the Japan Post."  The Bank will also disclose the figures excluding the deposit of the Japan Post in parentheses under the renamed item, "Reserves of financial institutions subject to the reserve requirement system and the deposit of the Japan Post."

2. Releasing more information at the regular time of same-day settlement operations

The Bank releases the projection (rounded off to 10 billion yen) of the "Net change in current account balances" on the previous day at around 6:00 p.m. (except the last business day of the month), and also releases the projection of the "Net change in current account balances" at the regular time of same-day settlement operations offered at around 9:20 a.m.  As the current account balances as a whole at the Bank approach the required reserves, under the current disclosure of information, it will become difficult to estimate whether the amount of funds held by institutions subject to the reserve requirement system is sufficient if other institutions hold a large amount of current account balances.  Therefore, in order to make it easier for market participants to estimate the supply and demand of funds in the market, the Bank will, in addition to the current information, start releasing the rough projection of "Reserve balances" at the regular time of same-day settlement operations offered at around 9:20 a.m.

For further information, contact

Open Market Operations, Financial Markets Department

Tadaaki Kumagai (+81-3-3277-1284)