Japan cenbank assets hit record high of $2.35 trillion
TOKYO (Reuters) - Total assets held by the Bank of Japan hit a record 277 trillion yen (1 trillion pound) by the end of September, the central bank said on Wednesday, up more than 30 percent from a year earlier, fuelled by outright purchases of Japanese government bonds under its quantitative easing programme.
The BOJ also said it posted a net profit of 587.8 billion yen in the April-September period, up 47 percent over the corresponding period last year, buoyed by interest income from its JGB holdings.
Of the BOJ's total assets, its JGB holdings hit 229 trillion yen at the end of September, up 36 percent from a year earlier, the BOJ said. That accounts for about 20 percent of outstanding government bonds, worth more than 1,000 trillion yen.
The BOJ's capital adequacy ratio stood at 7.76 percent at end-September, the BOJ said, up from 7.74 percent at end-March, but still below the level of 8 percent it sets as the benchmark of its financial health.
Setting an example of taking risk and profiting from it, the central bank said it reaped latent profit from its stock, ETF and J-REIT holdings respectively of 1.203 trillion yen, 1.372 trillion yen and 62.7 billion yen at end-September.
The latent profits from these assets held by the BOJ were up by around 28 percent, 37 percent and 44 percent respectively, compared with end-March.
Latent profits from the JGB holdings reached 3.5947 trillion yen at end-September, up 32 percent from end-March.
The central bank stunned markets last month by expanding its already massive monetary stimulus, paving the way for further increase in the size of its assets.
(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
