BroadChain learned that on April 24 at 03:30, Shigeru Shimizu, Director of the Risk Analysis Division of the Japan Financial Services Agency (FSA), disclosed at the 9th BCCC Collaboration Day that the agency has submitted a bill to a special session of the Diet, planning to transfer the regulatory framework for virtual currencies from the "Funds Settlement Act" to the "Financial Instruments and Exchange Act" (FIE) to strengthen user protection. Key points of the bill include: standardizing information disclosure based on whether issuers are compliant; establishing a new category of "crypto asset transaction business" and strengthening supervision; increasing penalties for unregistered businesses and enhancing oversight by the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission; improving insider trading rules; and expanding the scope of administrative fines.
Shigeru Shimizu also introduced three empirical experiments of the Payment Promotion Project (PIP): major banks and others participating in the issuance of yen stablecoins to verify cross-border payment efficiency; using blockchain to record equity transfers of government bonds, corporate bonds, investment trusts, and stocks, enabling 24-hour continuous securities trading and settlement; and establishing a mechanism for transferring tokenized deposits between different banks, in collaboration with the Bank of Japan's "Central Bank Current Deposit Tokenization Sandbox Project." Shimizu noted that blockchain has significant potential to enhance the convenience and diversity of financial services, and the FSA will continue to promote environmental preparation and practical support.