英字新聞

The Yomiuri Shimbun September 24, 2013
New FSA inspection method must help boost lending to growing firms
新金融検査方針　成長重視で新規融資に弾みを（9月23日付・読売社説）

If the Financial Services Agency limits its activities to pressuring commercial banks to dispose of bad loans, there is little possibility new loans will be extended to firms with growth potential.
　金融庁が銀行に不良債権処理を厳しく迫るばかりでは、成長分野への新規融資は進まない。

The FSA has therefore found it necessary to revise its method of inspecting financial institutions to keep abreast of the times.
　金融検査の手法も、時代の要請によって変えていく必要がある。

The FSA, the government watchdog of banks, brokerages and other financial businesses, recently made major changes in how it inspects and supervises financial institutions.
　金融庁が、金融検査・監督方針を大きく転換した。

The focus of the changes lies in amending the conventional approach of examining the financial health of banks with a fine tooth comb to see whether they have nonperforming loans. Instead, it will leave the risk assessment of small-lot loans to small and midsize borrowers to the discretion of the banks.
　不良債権がないか、しらみつぶしに調べる手法を改め、中小企業向けなど小口融資の査定を各銀行の判断に委ねるという。

The way the FSA inspected banks at the time of the financial unrest in the wake of the bursting of the bubble economy could be referred to as a “crisis response method” with priority placed on bad loan disposal. In those days, there were a number of cases such as those depicted in TV dramas in which grim-looking inspectors relentlessly took bank executives to task.
　バブルが崩壊し、金融不安が高まった時期の検査は、不良債権処理を優先する「危機対応型」だった。こわもての検査官が、銀行幹部を容赦なくやりこめる。そんなテレビドラマのような場面も、実際に少なくなかった。

Even now, many banks, fearing FSA’s inspections, remain reluctant to provide loans to small and midsized companies and business ventures.
　今も銀行は金融検査を恐れ、中小企業やベンチャー企業への融資を渋りがちだ。

It is reasonable for the FSA, with a view to improving the current state of affairs which has seen financial services impeded, to shift its inspection method in favor of encouraging growth.
金融が目詰まりを起こした現状を改めようと、検査方針を「成長促進型」に切り替えるのは適切な対応と言える。

The greater latitude for discretionary judgment on the part of banks means that their management responsibility is heavier.
　融資判断の自由度が高まれば、銀行自身の責任は重くなる。

If banks turn down loan requests from small and midsize companies from now on, they may not be able to use the excuse of not being able to obtain permission from the FSA.
中小企業への融資を断る際、「金融庁が認めないから」といった言い訳は通らなくなろう。

Banks must sharpen their “discerning eyes” to find small businesses with promising futures and competent managers.
　事業の将来性や経営者の資質などを見極め、小さいながらキラリと光る成長企業を発掘する「目利き力」の強化が求められる。

Strengthen regional banks

It is essential for banks to adopt lending policies to sectors with high growth potential to make a major contribution to the Abenomics economic growth strategy led by the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
　銀行が成長分野への融資を積極的に展開し、安倍政権の経済政策「アベノミクス」を後押しすることが望まれる。

Regarding inspections of the three megabank groups, including Mitsubishi-UFJ Financial Group, the FSA has decided not to check individual banks on a bank-by-bank basis but to inspect them in a cross-sectional way by setting up expert teams in accordance with key inspection categories such as lending risks and quality of corporate governance.
　金融庁は、三菱ＵＦＪフィナンシャル・グループなど３メガバンクへの検査では、融資リスクや企業統治など重要テーマ別に専門チームを設け、複数行を横断的に検査する新手法を導入する。

The new method is aimed at clarifying problems and challenges common to the megabanks to help them improve their management. The megabanks, for their part, should accept suggestions offered through the new inspection method to enhance their international competitiveness.
　日本のメガバンクに共通する課題を洗い出し、経営改善につなげるのが狙いだ。メガバンクは検査で受けた指摘を生かし、国際競争力を高めてもらいたい。

There is no doubt that the rigorous inspections the FSA put into place in the past contributed to helping stabilize the nation’s financial system by pressing banks to quickly liquidate bad loans that ballooned as a result of the collapse of the bubble economy.
　従来の厳格な金融検査が、バブル崩壊で膨らんだ不良債権の処理を促し、金融システム安定に貢献したことも事実である。

While it is reasonable for the FSA to respect banks’ self-assessment of their assets, the agency must remain vigilant concerning large-lot loans to keep a damper on nonperforming loans.
　銀行の自己査定を尊重するにしても、金融庁が主要な融資にはしっかり目を光らせ、巨額の不良債権を見逃さないことが肝要だ。

In this connection, it is noteworthy that the FSA has called on regional banks and similar financial institutions to study the advisability of working out medium- and long-term business strategies over five- or 10-year periods.
　金融庁が地銀などに、５〜１０年後を見据えた中長期戦略の検討を求めた点も注目される。

As there are too many regional banks—three or four in a single prefecture—there are cases in which some have become financially strapped because of excessive competition.
　地銀が同じ都府県に３〜４行も乱立し、過当競争で疲弊するケースが目立つ。

The Abe administration places great hopes on the financing functions of regional banks and similar local financial institutions remaining robust to reinvigorate local economies.
安倍政権の目指す地域経済再生には、地銀などの金融機能強化が欠かせない。

Regional banks must waste no time in revising their management strategies, including business realignment through mergers or other means with other banks.
各地銀は他行との再編を含め、経営戦略の練り直しを急ぐべきだ。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 23, 2013)
（2013年9月23日01時35分 読売新聞）