Bank of Japan policy tracker
Policy changes: 1 March vs 12 June 2020
| 1 March | 12 June | |
| Interest rate | ||
| Short Term Interest Rate | -0.1% | -0.1% |
| Asset purchase programme | ||
| Japan government bonds | Guideline setting maximum annual pace of JBG purchases at ¥80tn (decided in Oct 2014). | Annual target purchase of ¥80tn was removed at the BoJ policy meeting on April 27th . |
| Exchange Traded Securities and J-REITs | Purchasing ETFs at a maximum annual pace of ¥6tn. | The maximum annual limit for central bank ETF purchases has doubled to ¥12tn (decided on Mar. 16th). |
| Measures to facilitate corporate financing | ||
| Special Funds-Supplying Operations | N/A (decided on Mar. 16th). | Targeted liquidity provision to provide loans to financial institutions to facilitate financing of corporates. The BoJ will lend up to ¥8tn against corporate debt at a 0% interest rate, with maturities up to one year. Implementation period until the end of September 2020.
The monetary policy meeting on April 27th decided to expand this facility from ¥8tn to ¥23tn and broaden the range of eligible counterparties.
The BoJ also increased incentives to banks by applying +0.1% interest rate on the reserves geared towards the SME program |
| Outright Purchases of Commercial Paper and Corporate Bonds | A standing facility that the BoJ uses to conduct monetary policy. Eligible counterparties must have a current account at the BoJ and be deemed sufficiently creditworthy. Counterparties must bid in competitive auctions the yield at which they desire to sell commercial paper or corporate bonds. | The BoJ decided on April 27th to increase the upper ceiling on purchases from ¥7.4tn to ¥20tn and the restriction on maximum holding from a single issuer was also lifted. |
| Lending facilities | ||
| Securities Lending Facility | A means by which the BoJ provides a temporary and secondary source of Japanese government securities to the markets. Securities are sold with repurchase agreements. | Decision on Mar. 13th to increase the number of issues of JGSs in the SLF to maintain stability in repo markets. Initial implementation period until April 3rd. Further revision on Mar. 24th to extend implementation to the end of April.
SLF now makes available the BoJ’s entire stock of JGSs and relaxes the upper limit on the number of JGS issues allowed for the submission of bids by counterparties. |
| Other liquidity facilities | ||
| Swap lines | Standing liquidity swap arrangements with the US, UK, ECB and Switzerland
Bilateral local currency swap lines with Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia Indonesia, Philippines and China and part of the CMIM regional currency swap arrangement.
Expired swap arrangements with South Korea |
The BoJ in coordination with the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve and the Swiss National Bank enhanced the provision of U.S. dollar liquidity on March 15, by lowering the pricing on the standing U.S. dollar liquidity swap arrangements by 25 basis points.
During April 9-16, the BoJ provided U.S. dollar funding through the swap line of US$27 billion for 84 days and US$6.7 billion for 7 days. |
Relevant links:
13 March: Announcement on market operations towards the end of March
15 March: Coordinated central bank action to enhance global US Dollar Liquidity
16 March: Announcement of enhancement of monetary easing measures due to Covid-19
24 March: Announcement of additional measures to stabilise repo Market