The Financial Services Agency will draw up guidelines for supervising cross-sector financial conglomerates in June in the face of increasing reorganization by banks, brokerages and insurers, agency officials said Tuesday.
The financial industry has long been one of the nation's most highly protected sectors. Although deregulation has progressed, banks, brokerages and insurance firms are still supervised separately under different laws, something analysts say hampers cross-sector alliances.
The move was included in a timetable released the same day for the government's two-year Financial Reform Program, which starts Friday. The program aims to pump new life into the financial sector.
The new program replaces the previous two-year plan, which was aimed at stabilizing the financial system by having banks halve their bad loans by the end of fiscal 2004, which ends Thursday.
Also included in Tuesday's timetable were plans to start discussions in fiscal 2006 on whether to establish a legal framework that would give financial conglomerates better ways to manage risk.
In June, the financial watchdog will also draft specific steps for preventing banks from stalling on bad-loan disposal efforts, officials said.
As for the massive injections of public funds banks have received in recent years, the FSA said it plans to outline steps that can be taken so the financial institutions can return the money without hurting their financial health or the financial markets.