and energy ; agriculture, forestry, and fisheries ; and tourism. in addition to the lending arrangement under the main rules, the bank has established special rules for a lending arrangement through which it extends loans to financial institutions for their equity investments and asset - based lending ( abl ). in abl, assets such as accounts receivable and inventories are used as eligible collateral. moreover, the bank has established special rules for another lending arrangement for small - lot investments and loans as well as for a u. s. dollar lending arrangement of 12 billion u. s. dollars – equivalent to 1 trillion yen – using the u. s. dollar reserves already held by the bank, for foreign currencydenominated investments and loans. the total size of these lending arrangements making up the growth - supporting funding facility was set at about 5. 5 trillion yen, of which nearly 4 trillion yen has already been disbursed by the bank. the amount of lending and investment actually provided by financial institutions using this facility greatly exceeds the amount of loans disbursed by the bank. this indicates that the bank ’ s measures have been producing positive effects as a catalyst. 2. the stimulating bank lending facility in october 2012, the bank introduced the stimulating bank lending facility with the aim of prompting financial institutions to take a more active stance and stimulating greater proactive credit demand of firms and households. with this facility, the bank will provide long - term yen - denominated funds at a low cost to financial institutions that have increased their lending, at their request, up to an amount equivalent to the net increase in their lending for a period of 15 months until the end of march 2014. the lending, based on which the net increase is calculated, can be either yen - denominated or foreign currency - denominated. while it may be extraordinary for a central bank to support lending – particularly foreigncurrency denominated lending – to firms located overseas or lending by domestic financial institutions ’ overseas offices, japanese firms ’ international operations as well as financial institutions ’ activities to provide funds for such operations are essential in capturing global demand, so that the bank ’ s measure to support such lending contributes to strengthening japan ’ s growth potential. based on recent lending data, the amount of funds provided through the stimulating bank lending facility is expected to reach more than 15 trillion yen by the end of march 2014. bis central bankers ’ speeches e. quantitative aspects of monetary easing the bank will provide a massive amount of funds

##after the growth - supporting funding facility ), which has been implemented concurrently with the bank ’ s measures to pursue powerful monetary easing. the measure was introduced in june 2010 with the aim of supplying long - term funds at a low interest rate to financial institutions in accordance with their efforts in terms of lending and investment to strengthen the foundations for economic growth. the initial ceiling of the total amount of loans was set at 3 trillion yen. subsequently, in june 2011, the bank established a 500 billion yen new line of credit, separate from the existing one, for equity investments and asset - based lending ( abl ), in which assets such as accounts receivables and inventories are used as collateral, based on the consideration that it was essential for the bank to devise ways to encourage the provision of equity - like funds, such as equity investments, and of loans without conventional collateral or guarantees. in march 2012, the bank decided to enhance the growth - supporting funding facility by ( 1 ) increasing the ceiling for the total amount of loans from 3 trillion yen to 3. 5 trillion yen ; and ( 2 ) establishing special rules for a new lending arrangement of 500 billion yen for small - lot investments and loans, as well as those for a new u. s. dollar lending arrangement of 12 billion u. s. dollars ( equivalent to 1 trillion yen ) for foreign currency - denominated investments and loans. looking at the amount of loans disbursed so far under the growth - supporting funding facility, the outstanding balance of the total loans stands at approximately 3. 2 trillion yen as of the beginning of june 2012. with regard to loan disbursement under the special rules for the u. s. dollar lending arrangement, the first disbursement of loans is to take place in september 2012. a breakdown of financial institutions ’ individual investment or lending in april 2010 – march 2012 by the areas for strengthening the foundations for economic growth shows that their investment and loans covered a wide range of areas ; in particular, almost 30 percent of the total funds was provided to environment and energy business and almost 20 percent was provided to medical, nursing care, and other health - related business. the bank expects that this facility will act as a catalyst to promote financial institutions ’ loans without conventional collateral such as real estate collateral as well as investment and lending to growth areas using long - term funds provided at a low interest rate. the bank expects that this will lead to an increase in the number of entrepreneurs