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銀行いじめをやめよ
利子が低い、貸し渋りのせいで企業が倒産がしている…など、銀行への非難が集中する中、かつて銀行員だった筆者が銀行の内情を明らかにする—
Stop Bank Bashing!
By SCOTT T. HARDS
OK, that's it! I'm not going to take it anymore! There's too much bank bashing going on! Led by the mass media, it seems like everybody these days wants to demonize Japan's banks.
Certainly, many things that the banks have done over the past few years cannot be defended. But as a former employee of one of Japan's city banks, I think it's time to respond to some of the more common false criticisms that are being tossed around these days.
Interest rates are too low: Sure, 0.25 percent interest on regular savings is hardly something to write home about, but that's not the banks' fault. Rates, influenced by the Bank of Japan's discount rate, primarily reflect the state of the economy. Higher rates now would hurt borrowers and just make things worse.
Besides, if you have money to invest, the April 1 loosening of foreign exchange laws has made it very easy for savers in Japan to place their funds in relatively high-yielding overseas accounts.
Banks are killing businesses by refusing to lend: Currently, Japan's city banks' kashi-shiburi, or tight lending practices, have drawn fire because many believe they are leading to the failure of otherwise viable companies.
But keep in mind that Bank for International Settlements (BIS) capital adequacy regulations are the main factor involved. If the banks lend aggressively, they will lower their capital adequacy ratios below acceptable international limits. Many of the firms that banks are letting fail are companies that were doomed anyway.
The banks simply decided that they didn't want to throw good money after bad. Believe me, banks want to lend! And shutting down lending now will seriously hurt their future profits.
The solution? Get an exception built into the BIS guidelines for Japanese banks, or let them boost their capital base by selling preferred stock to the government.
Taxpayers' funds shouldn't be used to help bail out the banks' bad loans: Certainly many of the loans of the bubble years were pure folly, but it was also the job of the Bank of Japan and Ministry of Finance to supervise the banks and prevent bad loans.
They obviously didn't do their job. It is important to help the banks start lending normally again by clearing these loans off their balance sheets quickly so they can contribute to the recovery of the Japanese economy.
Unless the banks can help pull Japan out of recession, the pain to consumers will be far more costly than the amount of tax money pumped into bank coffers.
Bank employees make too much money: No, they don't. Yes, they earn some 40 percent more on average than manufacturing employees, but they're worth it. Japan, just like any capitalist economy, pays its workers based on their ability to generate earnings for the company, and bankers are very good at that.
If the economy as a whole were a human body, then banks would be the heart. They pump the blood (money) that organs (companies) throughout the body (economy) need to survive.
One of the biggest problems in Japan right now is the fact that they are not lending the way they should be. It is now up to the country's leaders to create the environment that WILL let banks lend and revitalize the rest of us.
OK, that's it! I'm not going to take it anymore! There's too much bank bashing going on! Led by the mass media, it seems like everybody these days wants to demonize Japan's banks.
Certainly, many things that the banks have done over the past few years cannot be defended. But as a former employee of one of Japan's city banks, I think it's time to respond to some of the more common false criticisms that are being tossed around these days.
Interest rates are too low: Sure, 0.25 percent interest on regular savings is hardly something to write home about, but that's not the banks' fault. Rates, influenced by the Bank of Japan's discount rate, primarily reflect the state of the economy. Higher rates now would hurt borrowers and just make things worse.
Besides, if you have money to invest, the April 1 loosening of foreign exchange laws has made it very easy for savers in Japan to place their funds in relatively high-yielding overseas accounts.
Banks are killing businesses by refusing to lend: Currently, Japan's city banks' kashi-shiburi, or tight lending practices, have drawn fire because many believe they are leading to the failure of otherwise viable companies.
But keep in mind that Bank for International Settlements (BIS) capital adequacy regulations are the main factor involved. If the banks lend aggressively, they will lower their capital adequacy ratios below acceptable international limits. Many of the firms that banks are letting fail are companies that were doomed anyway.
The banks simply decided that they didn't want to throw good money after bad. Believe me, banks want to lend! And shutting down lending now will seriously hurt their future profits.
The solution? Get an exception built into the BIS guidelines for Japanese banks, or let them boost their capital base by selling preferred stock to the government.
Taxpayers' funds shouldn't be used to help bail out the banks' bad loans: Certainly many of the loans of the bubble years were pure folly, but it was also the job of the Bank of Japan and Ministry of Finance to supervise the banks and prevent bad loans.
They obviously didn't do their job. It is important to help the banks start lending normally again by clearing these loans off their balance sheets quickly so they can contribute to the recovery of the Japanese economy.
Unless the banks can help pull Japan out of recession, the pain to consumers will be far more costly than the amount of tax money pumped into bank coffers.
Bank employees make too much money: No, they don't. Yes, they earn some 40 percent more on average than manufacturing employees, but they're worth it. Japan, just like any capitalist economy, pays its workers based on their ability to generate earnings for the company, and bankers are very good at that.
If the economy as a whole were a human body, then banks would be the heart. They pump the blood (money) that organs (companies) throughout the body (economy) need to survive.
One of the biggest problems in Japan right now is the fact that they are not lending the way they should be. It is now up to the country's leaders to create the environment that WILL let banks lend and revitalize the rest of us.
Shukan ST: May 15, 1998
(C) All rights reserved
- demonize
- 悪魔に仕立て上げる
- cannot be defended
- 弁護しようがない
- false criticisms
- お角違いの非難
- are being tossed around
- 飛び交っている
- Interest rates
- 利率
- regular savings
- 普通預金
- is hardly something to write home about
- ほとんどとるに足らぬものだ
- discount rate
- 公定歩合
- primarily
- 本来
- state of the economy
- 経済の状況
- hurt
- 困らせる
- borrowers
- 借り手
- invest
- 投資する
- loosening of foreign exchange laws
- 外国為替法の緩和
- savers
- 預金者
- place their funds in 〜
- 自分の金を 〜 に入れる
- high-yielding
- 利回りのよい
- overseas accounts
- 海外の口座
- are killing businesses
- 企業をつぶしている
- have drawn fire
- 非難を招いている
- they are leading to the failure of otherwise viable companies
- 銀行の貸し渋りのため、それさえなければ生き残れる企業が倒産している
- Bank for International Settlements
- 国際決済銀行
- capital adequacy regulations
- 自己資本比率規制(→BISは、国際業務を営む銀行に、リスク込みの資産総額に対する自己資本比率を8.0%以上に保持することを課している)
- If the banks lend aggressively, they will lower their capital adequancy ratios below acceptable international limits.
- 銀行が積極的に貸し付けると、自己資本比率を国際統一基準より下げることになってしまう(→つまり、薄利多売の量的拡大の貸付行動になり、リスクを十分に吟味できなくなってしまう。日本の銀行は、こうした経営からの転換を迫られている)
- 〜 that banks are letting fail
- 銀行が見殺しにしている 〜
- were doomed
- どっちみち倒産することが決まっている
- throw good money after bad
- 失敗するとわかっている事業にさらに金をつぎ込む
- Get an exception built into 〜 for 〜
- 〜 に 〜 のために例外を作らせる
- boost
- 押し上げる
- preferred stock
- 優先株
- bail out
- (金で)救済する
- folly
- 狂気の沙汰
- supervise
- 監視する
- balance sheets
- 貸借対照表、バランスシート
- contribute to 〜
- 〜 に貢献する
- pull Japan out of recession
- 日本を景気後退から立ち直らせる
- 〜 pumped into bank coffers
- 銀行の金庫に送り込まれる 〜
- capitalist economy
- 資本主義経済
- generate earnings for 〜
- 〜 のために稼ぎ出す
- revitalize
- 再活性化する