Japan

JPX and TOCOM plan to merge this year to create an all-in-one bourse that handles both stocks and commodity futures, but challenges will remain even after a final agreement is reached.

The FSA plans to stress test Japanese regional banks by mid-year and issue business improvement orders and possible restrictions on poorly performing banks.

New rules will limit cryptocurrency margin trading to two-to-four times initial deposits and require exchanges offering margin facilities to register separately with government.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange plans to raise the minimum market cap for companies to maintain a listing on its First Section and require English language quarterly earnings disclosures.

Under Japan’s Presidency this year, the G20 financial sector agenda will centre on addressing market fragmentation, technological innovation and the problems of aging societies.

Japan's government plans to introduce legislation that will provide exemptions from its anti-monopoly law to allow regional banks to consolidate more easily.

Japan's Daiwa Securities Group has announced the completion of a proof of concept studying the effectiveness of using distributed ledger technology in trade matching processes.

In a bid to improve remittance services in the country and promote fintech, Japan plans to ease limits on non-banks providing money transfer services.

Japan funds to have access to CLS Settlement through Nomura Asset Management in a move to enable PvP settlement and adopt best practices promoted by the FX Global Code.

Deloitte Japan agreed to pay $2mn to settle charges related to audit reports it issued while dozens of its employees maintained financial relationships with the audit client.