kiyohiko g nishimura : future of central bank cooperation in asia, latin america and caribbean states remarks by mr kiyohiko g nishimura, deputy governor of the bank of japan, at the boj - cemla seminar on regional financial cooperation, tokyo, 11 october 2012. * 1. * * introduction : central bank cooperation in asia good morning, honorable speakers and distinguished guests. welcome to the annual meetings of the imf / world bank group, and in particular, to this boj / cemla seminar on regional financial cooperation, which is one of the most relevant and pressing issues in our increasingly inter - connected world. today, in my remarks, i would first like to touch upon the history of cooperation among central banks in asia, followed by an assessment of what has been achieved since the asian currency crisis of the late 1990s, and how this helped asia weather the shocks of the current global financial crisis. then i will discuss the issues we face today in this post - crisis world. the bank for international settlement, the bis, is the first name that comes to mind when considering cooperation among central banks. the bis provides opportunities for major central banks to discuss various issues, including international banking standards and global financial stability. 1 however, most asian central banks had to wait until the latter half of the 1990s to become directly involved in bis activities. it was this circumstance that led the bank of japan to propose the establishment of the executives ’ meetings of east asia and pacific central banks, or the emeap, which was officially established in 1991 with the members of eleven economies of east asia and oceania. 2 the emeap plays a particularly important role in promoting the exchange of opinions among practitioners and the maintenance of a surveillance network. member central banks share information at the working group meetings which cover financial markets, banking supervision, payment and settlement systems, and information technology. to take a prominent example, the working group on payment and settlement systems ( wg / pss ) regularly updates its “ red book ”, using methods similar to those adopted by the bis, to explain details of the payment and settlement systems of the member economies. currently, the working group on financial markets ( wg / fm ) is closely monitoring the impact of the european sovereign debt crisis upon financial markets in asia and oceania. 2. two financial crises and asian financial markets in the past two decades, member economies of the emeap have experienced two financial crises : the asian currency crisis of the late

app. by directly lowering the marketbased financing costs of non - financial corporations, it boosts the pass - through of our monetary policy. under the cspp, the eurosystem has since june 2016 purchased bonds issued by a wide range of non - bank corporations established in the euro area, which include large, as well as some smaller, companies. so far, close to €110 billion of corporate bonds from around 200 issuers, in 20 countries, across all sectors, have been purchased. this information is available on our website and in our publications, and is updated regularly. we continue to analyse possibilities for sharing more information, to the extent that it can enhance transparency without undermining the effectiveness of monetary policy. thanks to our corporate bond purchases, firms in the euro area have witnessed significant improvements in their financing conditions when issuing bonds. but these improvements in financing conditions stemming from the cspp are not confined to the companies whose bonds are purchased or to the corporate bond market : they are evident across firms and other market segments. 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches for example, the yield spreads of high - rated corporate bonds that are not eligible for purchase – namely those issued by financial corporations – have fallen by as much as those of eligible bonds issued by non - financial corporations ( almost 70 basis points, from 1. 25 % in march 2016 to 0. 57 % ) since the cspp announcement. spreads of non - investment grade corporate bonds, which are not eligible for the cspp, have also declined by 262 basis points, from 5. 59 % in march 2016 to 2. 97 %. 1 for asset purchases to boost activity and inflation, however, these improvements in financial markets need to be passed through into credit conditions for the real economy. in this regard, we have seen very favourable spillovers into credit conditions for small and medium - sized enterprises. as more corporations seek market - based financing, given the attractive funding conditions prevailing in the capital markets, banks are left with greater capacity to provide loans to smaller companies, which are more constrained in terms of access to funding sources. hence, bank lending rates on very small loans to non - financial corporations have declined by around 50 basis points since the cspp announcement. looking at our latest survey on the access to finance of enterprises, smaller companies are indeed reporting improved financing conditions and better access to finance. the cspp, therefore, has strengthened the pass - through of our asset purchases to the financing conditions of the real