Reuters: Financial Services and Real Estate: Japan Post Bank to boost bond holdings next yr -agency

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Japan Post Bank to boost bond holdings next yr -agency Mar 30th 2012, 04:46 TOKYO, March 30 | Fri Mar 30, 2012 12:46am EDT TOKYO, March 30 (Reuters) - Japan Post Bank, part of Japan Post Holdings, plans to increase its holding of Japan public-sector bonds by 4.440 trillion yen ($53.98 billion) in the financial year from April, after cutting holdings by 7.499 trillion yen this year, a semi-government agency said on Friday. Japan Post Insurance, the holding group's insurance arm, however, plans to cut bond holdings by 2.62 trillion yen next year after reducing them by 3.312 trillion yen in the year to March 31, the agency said. The numbers were reported to the Management Organization for Postal Savings and Postal Life Insurance, a semi-public agency tasked to administer state-owned Japan Post's transition to privatisation. Both state-owned financial institutions are legally required to report the planned level of their bond holdings to the agency but did not offer any further explanations. Japan Post Bank, known as Yucho, plans to boost its holding of government and municipal bonds as well as government guaranteed bonds to 154.689 trillion yen at the end of the financial year, compared to 150.249 trillion yen as of March. Last March, it held about 157.7 trillion yen worth. Japan Post Bank has total assets of nearly 200 trillion yen. Together with Japan Post Insurance, or Kampo, Japan Post forms Japan's biggest financial conglomerate and has been a big buyer of JGBs. Kampo plans to cut its bond holdings to 73.279 trillion yen by the end of next financial year from around 75.899 trillion yen as of this March and 79.211 trillion yen last March. Japan originally planned to sell all Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance shares by 2017 but the ruling and opposition parties this month agreed to scrap the deadline, raising uncertainty over its privatisation prospects. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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