President & CEO Kiyokatsu Uno
The Japan Government Bond Clearing Corporation (JGBCC) was founded in October of 2003 through joint capital investments by leading securities firms, banks, money market brokers (tanshi), and similar institutions for the purpose of establishing a settlement infrastructure that is key to the development of the government bond market as progress is made in Japan’s programs to reform its securities clearing and settlement system. JGBCC began offering Japanese government bond (JGB) settlement and clearing services in May of 2005, after being granted authorization to assume obligations arising from the transaction of financial instruments under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. There were 19 shareholders when the company was founded, but this has now increased to 35, and JGBCC is the only clearing firm in Japan wholly owned by its users.
Given the rapidly developing government bond market, driven in part by the massive quantity of bonds issued as well as the effects of globalization, efficiency and risk reduction have become two major issues in settlements. As such, the chief purpose of our company is to offer highly specialized and dedicated settlement services to the market—services that are consistent with international standards—thereby contributing to the healthy development of Japan’s government bond market and to increased international competitiveness.
As far as the company’s recent handling performance is concerned, by virtue of the benefits of netting, settlement value for government bonds have shrunk to less than one quarter of what they were. In addition, JGBCC’s share in the entire JGB market has now reached about 60 percent for buy/sell and repo transactions, evidence that the use of our company for the settlement of JGBs is gradually becoming a de facto standard.
As a core infrastructural institution in the JGB settlement market, our company is committed to furthering the safety, efficiency and convenience of settlement, and at the same time continually developing mechanisms that respond in a precise way to the ever-diversifying and sophisticated needs of clients in the market. We sincerely appreciate your continued cooperation, understanding and patronage.