yen weakening. domestic wholesale prices continue to decline as a whole mainly in machinery and chemical products, although the decrease in the prices such as of electronic parts seems to have ceased. consumer prices are weakening reflecting the decline in prices of imported products and their substitutes. corporate service prices continue to decrease. as for the conditions surrounding price developments, the effects of the past decline in crude oil prices are likely to continue for a time. on the other hand, the recent yen ’ s depreciation is regarded as a factor to support prices in the period ahead. however, as the economy continues to deteriorate, the balance between supply and demand in the domestic market will increasingly exert downward pressure on prices. furthermore, in addition to the declining trend of machinery prices caused by technological innovations, the decreases in the prices of goods and services reflecting deregulation and the streamlining of distribution channels will continue to restrain price developments. overall, prices are expected to follow a gradual declining trend for the time being. moreover, given the high this report is based on data and information available at the time of the bank of japan monetary policy meeting held on january 15 and 16, 2002. the bank ’ s view of recent economic and financial developments, determined by the policy board at the monetary policy meeting held on january 15 and 16 as the basis for monetary policy decisions. degree of uncertainty regarding future economic developments, the possibility that weak demand will further intensify downward pressure on prices warrants careful monitoring. in the financial market, the overnight call rate continues to move around zero percent as the bank of japan provided further ample liquidity to the money market by aiming at maintaining the outstanding balance of the current accounts at the bank at around 10 to 15 trillion yen due to the changes in the guideline for money market operations decided at the monetary policy meeting held on december 19. interest rates on term instruments are declining on the whole reflecting additional monetary easing measures. the japan premium remains negligible. yields on long - term government bonds rose slightly and are mainly moving around 1. 40 - 1. 45 percent recently. as for the yield spreads between private bonds ( bank debentures and corporate bonds ) and government bonds, while spreads between bonds with relatively high credit ratings and government bonds remain mostly unchanged, those between bonds with low credit ratings and government bonds tend to expand. stock prices rebounded somewhat towards the start of the year, but are weakening recently. in the foreign exchange market, the yen depreciated further towards the

bank failures − speech by sam woods given at mansion house published on 16 october 2023 sam talks about the banking failures this year, the lessons learnt and how the regulatory framework is doing its job. speech introduction it ’ s been an extremely eventful year for banking regulators in the uk and elsewhere. the failures of silicon valley bank ( svb ) and credit suisse ( cs ) have prompted renewed public debate about prudential regulation and supervision, and the resolution framework. i want to use this speech to offer my perspective on these debates. what do recent bank failures say about the global and uk regulatory frameworks, and what should our priorities be going forward? in doing so, i will hopefully be able to tie the various strands of regulatory work into a coherent single picture. there is a lot of work to be done to improve and refine the regulatory regime for banks. recent events illustrate why. at the same time, there is cause for optimism. yes, we have seen some pretty dramatic bank failures. but those failures have not led to systemic crises, and have been managed without taxpayers having to absorb banks ’ losses. taken in the round, i count that as a success for the post - financial crisis reform effort. but i would not be much of a prudential regulator if i focused only on the positives, rather than the downside risks! so the bulk of my comments will be focused on the important work underway to improve the prudential framework for banks. the goals of the framework prudential regulators are sometimes accused of wanting to reduce risks of failure to zero. but that ’ s not really accurate. in fact, it is an absurd suggestion when you consider that we allow the banking system to run at twenty times levered – or to put in another way, that the banking system ’ s capital would be wiped out by a loss equivalent to 5 % of the value of its assets. our goal is to make sure that banks are safe and sound [ 1 ] – but we have always been clear that does not equate to a ‘ zero - failure ’ regime, because we want banks to provide useful services such as lending which involve significant risks. in fact, a world with no bank failures would only be possible if we either : banned nearly all risk - taking by banks. [ 2 ] that might save me some all - nighters – but it would massively curtail the real economy ’ s access to credit from banks, and is not consistent with maintaining