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.

The Financial Services Agency is keeping a closer watch over financial institutions as they take bigger risks. | KYODO
The Financial Services Agency is keeping a closer watch over financial institutions as they take bigger risks. | KYODO

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.