(Excerpt)
(Friday, March 27, 2026, ９:40 am to ９:49 am)
[Opening remarks:]
- Minister)
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To begin with, I would like to make four points. ...
The third point concerns financial measures in light of the situation in the Middle East. To ensure that businesses do not face serious difficulties with their cash flow, we held an emergency meeting today to exchange views on the promotion of business operator support and the facilitation of financing. I will directly communicate with public and private financial institutions on measures, including the thorough implementation of meticulous financing support for business operators, the promotion of the use of special consultation desks such as the Japan Finance Corporation (JFC), which has expanded the scope of the loan, the promotion of the use of safety net loans, which is scheduled to expand the scope of the interest rate reduction from April 1, and the promotion of the use of a special consultation contact number to be set up at the Financial Services Agency (FSA). In addition, I will issue an emergency request jointly with the relevant ministers.
Lastly, I would like to introduce the fourth point, the establishment of a framework for sharing information on fraudulent accounts among deposit-taking financial institutions and promptly freezing those accounts. The amount of money lost to specialized fraud and other crimes is on the rise, and illegally traded deposit accounts are being misused as destinations for these funds. The FSA has amended the Enforcement Regulations of the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds and other relevant regulations to enable financial institutions to actively share information on a legal basis. We are opening a public comment on this matter today. In addition, we will provide financial assistance to the Cooperation Agency for Anti-Money Laundering, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese Bankers Association tasked with establishing an information-sharing system, to cover the costs of building this system. We expect that these frameworks will enable financial institutions to promptly and systematically identify accounts controlled by criminals, thereby preventing the misuse of such accounts and the spread of fraud-related damage. While we have previously worked together with the private sector and across industries to raise awareness that the buying and selling of accounts are illegal, the FSA will continue to strive to prevent fraud in cooperation with the National Police Agency and industry associations. These are the four points.
