Skip to main content

Stock Purchase Guidelines

Some editorial revisions have been made to the English translation since it was initially released on October 11, 2002.
The original Japanese text, however, remains entirely unchanged.

October 11, 2002
Bank of Japan

At a regular board meeting1 held today, the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan approved basic guidelines on the purchase of stocks held by commercial banks.

The Bank of Japan subsequently applied to the Minister of Finance and the Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency for official approval to bring the guidelines into effect, in accordance with the Bank of Japan Law.

The approval was made in response to the Bank's announcement of September 18, 2002 ("New Initiative Toward Financial System Stability"), in which the Bank announced that it would explore possible policy measures to enhance financial institutions' efforts to reduce their shareholdings.

Upon government approval, the Bank of Japan will begin purchasing operations as soon as the necessary measures are in place.

To ensure high standards of legal compliance, the Bank of Japan will also establish internal rules concerning stock purchasing operations and an internal control system to avoid the risk of violating insider trading rules as soon as possible.

  1. The meeting was not a Monetary Policy Meeting.