Japan

The FSA will stress tests regional banks and force weaker lenders to take action to improve profitability, replace their management, or merge.

TOCOM will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of JPX, and together they will launch a consolidated exchange for stocks, financial and commodity derivatives by September 2020.

Citigroup's London office allegedly placed large orders in the 10-year JGB futures market outside of Japanese trading hours that were not executed, but may have mislead investors.

The amended determination for Japan finds comparability regarding the scope of entities subject to the margin requirements, and the treatment of margining for inter-affiliate transactions.

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.