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QuestionWho holds accounts at the Bank?
Financial institutions hold current accounts at the Bank. The Bank also provides current account services to governments, central banks, and international organizations. It does not accept deposits from individuals or firms. This is because the main objective of the Bank's acceptance of deposits is to ensure smooth settlement of funds among banks and other financial institutions, as part of its role as the nation's central bank.
Financial Institutions That Conduct Transactions with the Bank
The Bank selects institutions eligible for conducting transactions with it through current accounts they hold at the Bank. Eligible institutions include the following.
- Institutions that play a major role in funds settlement: banks, trust banks, shinkin banks, branches of foreign banks, central institutions for cooperative financial institutions,1 central counterparties (CCPs) for fund transfer transactions, and bankers associations.
- Institutions that play a major role in securities settlement: financial instruments firms such as securities companies and foreign securities companies, securities finance companies, and CCPs for financial instrument transactions.
- Institutions that play a major role as an intermediary in money markets, such as tanshi companies (money market brokers).
- The Bank conducts transactions with and provides current account services to the central financial institutions of credit cooperatives (shinkumi banks), labor banks, and agricultural cooperatives. These banks and cooperatives do not have direct access to the Bank's services, as they generally serve only their members, and their provision of domestic clearing services -- a major means of funds settlement -- to their members is optional.