The Bank of Japan injected more funds into the banking system Wednesday via daily market operations, raising the balance of outstanding current account deposits held at the BOJ by commercial banks by 1.2 trillion yen to about 20.2 trillion yen, money traders said.
It is the largest outstanding balance of current accounts since the central bank adopted quantitative credit-easing steps last March.
At the BOJ Policy Board meeting last month, the BOJ decided to flexibly provide funds regardless of its 10 trillion yen to 15 trillion yen target for current accounts to ensure financial market stability toward the March 31 end of fiscal 2001, when settlement demands are expected to rise.
Following the day's liquidity injections by the BOJ, the key unsecured overnight call money rates were moving at 0.001 percent, the low end of the recent trading range.