TOKYO: Japanese regulators are starting to look into underwriting practices in the nation’s corporate bond market, where banks routinely say deals are successful even in cases when they are under-subscribed.
The move suggests that the potential damage to some investors in Japan’s 76 trillion yen (US$669bil) company note market is getting too big for the government to ignore. Bloomberg reported last month that underwriters in Japan failed to fully sell at least 29% of corporate debt offerings in September, twice the average over six months, based on interviews with investors, underwriters and issuers.