Japan’s financial regulator is keeping a closer watch on the nation’s banks and insurers as their drawn out hunt for yield pushes them into riskier nontraditional assets.
After years of ultra-low interest rates and record levels of deposits, it’s "inevitable” that firms are taking bigger risks, according to Toshinori Yashiki, who’s in charge of assessing risk at banks and insurers at the Financial Services Agency.
"The situation is getting worse,” Yashiki, 56, said in an interview. "There have been moves to pursue yields,” and financial firms "have to take risks they haven’t taken before.”
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.