In order to review the impact of high-speed trading upon the efficiency, transparency and stability of the markets, Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) is going to hold a meeting next month, which will focus on blockchain applications in the country’s financial markets, CoinDesk reported.
In a notice dated April 8, the country’s financial regulator said that global portfolio diversification and sophistication of asset management activities are becoming increasingly critical for stable wealth formation of the nation, given the current financial conditions.
"The development of FinTech such as block-chain technology is now a rapidly emerging, important topic for market participants to address intentionally. Discussion also needs to be held on what kind of solutions we should prepare in order to enhance the competitiveness of our markets”, the announcement read.
The announcement follows the comments made by Masamichi Kono, Vice Minister for International Affairs, FSA, at the OECD-ADBI Roundtable on Capital Markets and Financial Reform in Tokyo last month. Kono said that Asia should be making best use of technological innovations such as the blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.
The FSA has been consistently making efforts to introduce a regulatory mechanism for virtual currencies. The Japanese government intends to bring cryptocurrency exchanges under FSA supervision and recently the Cabinet approved the bill on virtual currencies that treat them as “asset-like values” that can be used for making payments and be transferred digitally.