Japan FinTech Observer #64. Welcome to the sixty-fourth edition of… | by Norbert Gehrke | Tokyo FinTech | Jun, 2024

Welcome to the sixty-fourth version of the Japan FinTech Observer. This text has exceeded 10,000 subscribers (on LinkedIn). Thanks, and please maintain sharing this version in the event you discover worth in it!

The Financial institution of Japan’s June Financial Coverage Assembly (MPM) ended on Friday with none change to the goal price, and a call to cut back the Financial institution’s purchases of JGBs. The BOJ will verify the views of market contributors and provide you with an in depth plan for “the following one to 2 years or so” to be offered on the July MPM.

We now see some divergence amongst analysts on whether or not the following price hike will happen in July (CLSA, GS) or October (as a result of LDP management election anticipated in September, MUFG Morgan Stanley), as properly whether or not the third hike will happen this yr (CLSA) vs in January 2025 (GS, MUFG Morgan Stanley). In any case, after the third price hike the goal price will probably be between 0.25% to 0.5%

Whereas the automobile producers are working by means of their very own bother, the non-life insurers submitted their first progress report on the enterprise enchancment plans put in place after the company insurance coverage price-fixing and Massive Motor fraudulent claims scandals. Additionally, on the finish of the week the SESC really helpful administrative motion towards MUFG for violation of firewall guidelines, with the size of anticipated sanctions troublesome to evaluate.

Lastly, we now have additionally taken a better take a look at the worldwide rankings revealed over the previous month, these embody the startup ecosystem (StartupBlink & Startup Genome), good cities (Z/Yen) and gender equality (World Financial Discussion board). See here how Japan has fared.

In any other case, here’s what we’re going to cowl this week:

• Enterprise Capital & Personal Markets: UB Ventures and One Capital have made strides in elevating their subsequent funds; Nissay Capital has established a brand new fund for pre-seed investments; Asuene has efficiently raised $26.7 million within the first shut of its Collection C; MUFG, by means of its Ganesha Fund, has invested in Battery Sensible; MS&AD Ventures invests in Sidekick; World Mind Company has invested in Rise
• Insurance coverage: Progress report on enterprise enchancment plans by non-life insurers
• Banking: Daiwa Securities pushing its possession stake in Aozora Financial institution to shut to 24%
• Funds: LINE Yahoo Japan and LINE Pay will progressively shut down LINE Pay; JCB and iMago have launched a mission to offer a brand new procuring expertise utilizing UWB (Extremely Vast Band) and BLE (Bluetooth Low Power)
• Capital Markets: The Securities and Trade Surveillance Fee has really helpful administrative motion towards MUFG; SBI Securities introduced that its buyer balances have exceeded 40 trillion yen
• Asset Administration: Nomura will present the Rising Managers Program (EMP) to advertise new entrants to the asset administration enterprise
• Digital Property: Monex Group and Coincheck intend to increase the De-SPAC settlement to January 2, 2025; the Kanto Regional Monetary Bureau took administrative motion towards CoinBest; the FSA issued a warning to LBank Trade that’s working crypto-asset trade enterprise with out correct registration; HARTi has obtained a patent within the NFT x CRM discipline; Metaplanet bought an extra 250 million yen ($1.58 million) price of bitcoin; Ripple launched the XRPL Japan and Korea Fund
• The Final Phrase: The New “Cool Japan”