Crypto lender Amber Group is weighing options for its Japan unit, including a possible sale, and plans to apply for a Hong Kong license following the city’s pivot toward creating a digital-asset hub, Bloomberg News reported. The evaluation of the Japan operation is part of a strategic decision to focus more on institutional rather than retail business, Amber’s Managing Partner Annabelle Huang said on Friday. Japan is a “very high quality market, but regulations are strict,” Huang said, adding the firm doesn’t have an announcement at the moment about a deal.
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The new governor of Japan’s central bank signaled Monday that he plans no drastic changes in its ultra-low interest rate policy, sticking to earlier messaging on the topic, the Associated Press reported. Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda said Japan’s financial institutions are not facing the sorts of turmoil seen recently with bank failures in the U.S. and Europe. He pledged to do his utmost to maintain stability in both prices and financial systems in the world's third-largest economy.
Mt Gox has issued notice stating that the deadline for the Selection and Registration has expired, and now, the rehabilitation creditors cannot make changes without the approval of the Rehabilitation Trustee, beincrypto.com reported. The deadlines were extended multiple times, first to Mar. 10 and then eventually to Apr. 6, 2023. The Trustee will work towards making the Base, Intermediate, and Early Lump-Sum repayments by Oct. 31, 2023. However, the notice reads that the deadline might get extended due to various circumstances with the permission of the Tokyo District Court.
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Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has created a fund investing in loans for leveraged buyouts, the first of its kind in Japan, anticipating growing demand for such financing as mergers and acquisitions gain steam, Nikkei Asia reported. The roughly 16 billion yen ($121 million) fund has lined up a dozen or so investors, including life insurers and regional banks. MUFG plans to have three such funds by fiscal 2024, with a total of up to 100 billion yen in assets.
Catalina Marketing Corp., a data and marketing services provider to retailers and consumer products companies, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday for the second time with a prepackaged plan to slash debt and sell its business in Japan, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Catalina has suffered from a decline in demand for its services in recent years, including during the Covid-19 pandemic when most retailers were forced to close their doors, according to a court filing yesterday by Chief Financial Officer Michael Huffmaster.
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Japan's JOLED, a company formed in a 2015 merger of the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) businesses of Panasonic and Sony, said on Monday that it had filed for bankruptcy protection at the Tokyo District Court, Nikkei Asia reported. JOLED has total liabilities of 33.7 billion yen ($257 million). JOLED's troubles are part of the long decline of Japan's display industry, which has undergone repeated realignments to try to compete with South Korean and Chinese rivals.
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The Bank of Japan intends to maintain easy monetary policy and the government's energy assistance programme will hold down inflation, the central bank's governor Haruhiko Kuroda told a news conference at a G20 event on Thursday, Reuters reported. The governor expects inflation to be below 2% for fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024, adding that Japan is no longer in a deflationary environment. Given that import prices have fallen, the Japanese government's energy assistance will aid in holding down inflation, Kuroda said.
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The Japanese subsidiary of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX said it started allowing customers to withdraw their assets on Tuesday, a relatively quick reboot that Tokyo regulators see as the fruit of their strict crypto laws, the Wall Street Journal reported. The situation in Japan contrasts with the U.S. and other countries, where most FTX customers are a long way from getting access to their assets more than three months after the exchange’s U.S. bankruptcy filing. Japan, which was burned by the collapse of the early cryptocurrency exchange Mt.
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Japan's manufacturing activity contracted at the fastest pace in 30 months in February, a business survey showed on Tuesday, in a worrying sign for the world's third-largest economy, which is facing weakening demand and struggling to tame cost pressures, Reuters reported. The au Jibun Bank flash Japan manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to a seasonally adjusted 47.4 in February, from a final 48.9 in the previous month.
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The next boss of Japan’s central bank may eventually chart a course away from the “yield-curve control” policy championed by the ancien regime. But investors probably shouldn’t expect a radical change in Japan’s monetary policy overnight, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Japanese government on Tuesday nominated Kazuo Ueda to become the next governor of the central bank, confirming last Friday’s media reports of the surprise pick. Current governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who oversaw a program of aggressive and unorthodox monetary easing, will end his 10-year stint in April.
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