Western Premium?

Japanese banks turn from sinner to saint（Financial Times 4月2日）
こういう皮肉の利いた見出し、あくまでも英紙であって米紙ではないFTならではですなぁ。WSJにはこういうセンスはないな（と思う）。
しかしこの記事は個人的には驚きですた。ちょっと長いけど全文引用。

A decade ago, Japanese banks were being shunned in the global capital markets because of concerns about their backlog of bad loans. Now, in a bizarre twist arising from the credit crisis, the reverse is true.

Western banks have seen the credit crunch increasingly choke off their usual funding lines in capital markets and among themselves and so have had to scour global markets for alternative sources of money. Some have been turning to the yen money market, attracted by the relative stability of the markets so far.

However, some regional Japanese banks appear increasingly reluctant to lend to foreign institutions through the yen money markets as the fallout from the subprime crisis brings anxiety about creditworthiness to yet another shore.

A significant portion of the demand in the yen market for three-month term money is from foreign institutions raising money that is converted into currencies such as dollars, sterling or euros, says Masayuki Ebira, director of money markets at Barclays Capital in Tokyo.

This is pushing up the rates at which all banks lend to each other in the money markets as measured by the Yen Libor rate, or the local Tibor rate.

“There is a lack of credit access from Japanese banks to non-Japanese banks,” Mr Ebira says. If the Japanese banks were to increase their limits it would be easy for the others to borrow, but “they are so conscious about credit conditions at banks that about half the regional banks never lend money to non-Japanese”.

General concern about financial markets put more pressure on money market rates at the year end for all banks accessing the Japanese money markets and overnight rates touched 0.75 per cent on March 31, the fiscal year end for Japan.

On that day, foreign institutions tapping these markets were being asked to pay about 10 basis points more to borrow than domestic banks.

The Bank of Japan injected a total of Y3,000bn ($30bn) into the markets through a number of different operations, which helped bring overnight rates back closer to its 0.5 per cent target. This is the largest single day overnight cash injection since the central bank exited its quantitative easing policy two years ago.

The situation for overnight rates has been calm since Tuesday and the spread between lending to foreign institutions and domestic ones has narrowed to between 2bp and 3bp, which is more normal, says Mr Ebira.

But the money market difficulties highlight how the Bank of Japan’s role has changed significantly. The central bank now must also consider non-Japanese institutions. The globalisation of the yen money markets means that half of the activity is now accounted for by non-Japanese banks.

Hiroshi Nakaso, a senior official at central bank, says: “The fiscal year end is always something that requires cautiousness but this year it was compounded by the increased sensitivity to the turbulence in global financial markets.

“Given the presence of global players, our market is in no way insulated from global developments.”

To offset the upward pressure on money market rates, “we have been providing term funds in the run-up to March end employing a variety of operational tools that are at our disposal”.

The experience of Japan’s central bank in providing liquidity to the money markets may provide lessons for other central bankers dealing with liquidity issues in their own markets.

One of the advantages the central bank has is carrying out both the market execution and the monitoring of banks’ funding positions. Even though it takes a lot of manpower, the bank then has knowledge of market needs and can fulfil them through several operations daily.

This allows the bank to act more precisely and quickly to funding needs. It also carries out operations at several different maturities.

One western banker says the bank’s presence in the money markets has given institutions confidence that it will do what is necessary to maintain orderly markets.

Mr Nakaso says: “Market operations around the world are in the spotlight now. Every central bank is trying its best to improve operation measures in ways that best fit their own markets. I don’t think it would be a feasible goal to harmonise open market operations in all countries because market structures are different. But there is a lot we can learn from each other’s way.”

ミソは「On that day, foreign institutions tapping these markets were being asked to pay about 10 basis points more to borrow than domestic banks.」の箇所。うーん、これってWestern Premium？（または外資プレミアム？）
所謂「ジャパン・プレミアム」の消滅から8年。こんな日が来ましたか。想像するに、インターバンク市場に長く関わっている日本人バンカーの方々にとっては感慨深いものがあったんじゃないでしょうか。broadmindはトーシローですから実感としてはよくわかりませんが。これがFTの記事だというのはやや残念で、日経なり、日本の金融機関からの発信はないんですかね。加藤哲郎からホームラン打って「バーカ！」と言った駒田のように気合の入った、かつchildishな日本人バンカーさんはいないのでしょうか。といっても邦銀にもそんな余裕はないのか。