Japanese individual investors are increasingly shying away from financial products with potential risk, especially after the sudden collapse of U.S. energy giant Enron Corp. dealt a severe blow to popular money management funds.
Some investors have already started to flock to financial products they believe to be safe havens before the unlimited guarantee on banks' time deposits expires April 1. But others will likely wait and see for another year amid the uncertainty of Japanese currency and stocks, merely parking their money in ordinary deposits, analysts say.
MMFs initially attracted many individual investors as they were considered to be as safe as bank accounts while providing much higher interest.