the manifestation of this risk and to maintain the improving momentum of expectation formation, the bank decided on the expansion of qqe. b. enhancement of other fund - provisioning measures prior to the introduction of qqe, the bank established – on its balance sheet – the loan support program, with the aim of making the effect of monetary easing permeate the entire economy. the program consists of two measures – namely, the fund - provisioning measure to support strengthening the foundations for economic growth ( hereafter the growthsupporting funding facility ) and the fund - provisioning measure to stimulate bank lending bis central bankers ’ speeches ( hereafter the stimulating bank lending facility ) – and had been providing support for private financial institutions ’ efforts to these ends. in january 2015, the bank decided to extend the application period of the program by one year. it also decided, with regard to the growth - supporting funding facility, to increase the maximum amount of funds that it can provide to each financial institution from 1 trillion yen to 2 trillion yen, and also to increase the maximum amount outstanding of its fund - provisioning as a whole from 7 trillion yen to 10 trillion yen. moreover, the bank further enhanced the program by introducing a new framework for enabling financial institutions that do not have a current account at the bank to use the growth - supporting funding facility and the stimulating bank lending facility through their central organizations. the bank also decided, in january 2015, to extend the application period of the fundssupplying operation to support financial institutions in disaster areas affected by the great east japan earthquake by one year. through these enhancements of the existing measures, the bank will further promote financial institutions ’ lending, as well as stimulate firms ’ and households ’ demand for credit and continue to support the efforts of financial institutions in disaster areas toward rebuilding. c. financial conditions as i have described, the bank has been implementing large - scale monetary easing through various measures. in this situation, interest rates in financial markets have been hovering at extremely low levels. yields on 10 - year jgbs are currently in the range of 0. 3 – 0. 4 percent, although there have been relatively large fluctuations recently. while the u. s. dollar / yen rate has been moving within a narrow range of 115 – 120 yen, the nikkei 225 stock average has been in the range of 18, 000 – 19, 000 yen. financial conditions have continued to be accommodative. the average contract

been taking a range of measures in a timely manner, from three main perspectives : ( 1 ) maintaining the functioning of financial and settlement systems ; ( 2 ) ensuring the stability of financial markets ; and ( 3 ) supporting the economy. i would now like to discuss the bank ’ s response to the disaster. bis central bankers ’ speeches 1. maintaining the functioning of financial and settlement systems and ensuring the stability of financial markets in terms of maintaining the functioning of the financial and settlement systems, the bank has been taking all possible measures to provide cash to the disaster areas and to operate japan ’ s major payment and settlement systems as usual, including the bank of japan financial network system, or boj - net – the core settlement system for funds and japanese government securities. in addition, to respond to the increase in precautionary demand for funds, the bank provided ample funds to sufficiently meet market demand. more specifically, on monday, march 14, the first business day after the disaster, the bank provided a total of 21. 8 trillion yen in funds, almost three times the largest daily funds provision during the financial crisis after the failure of lehman brothers. thereafter, the bank continued its ample provision of funds. as a result, the outstanding balance of financial institutions ’ current accounts at the bank marked a historical high of 42. 6 trillion yen as of march 24. comparing this amount to the level before the earthquake of around 17 trillion yen illustrates well the amount of funds provided by the bank after the disaster. due to these measures taken by the bank, financial markets remained stable following the earthquake. 2. further enhancing monetary easing by increasing the amount of the asset purchase program at the mpm held immediately after the earthquake, on march 14, 2011, the bank decided to take measures to further enhance monetary easing, with a view to preempting a deterioration in business sentiment and an increase in risk aversion in financial markets from adversely affecting economic activity. specifically, the bank decided to double the amount of asset purchases – mainly of risk assets, such as cp, corporate bonds, and etfs – through the bank ’ s asset purchase program from about 5 trillion yen to about 10 trillion yen. i also shared the view that it was extremely important for the bank to decide on drastic further monetary easing to fully reassure market participants. i believe that the measure was effective in reassuring market participants in that it prevented a deterioration in business sentiment and an increase in risk aversion in financial markets : for example, iss