Mr. Akihiro Wani, Senior Counselor

Ito & Mitomi / Morrison & Foerster LLP

In February 2016, the Bank of Japan introduced QQE with a negative interest rate. This has had a number of legal implications which are currently being discussed by the Financial Law Board, which is an independent body advising the Bank of Japan.

Mr. Akihiro Wani, from Ito & Mitomi / Morrison & Foerster LLP and a member of the Financial Law Board, will address some of the key legal implications of negative interest rates in Japan and its operational effects on financial firms including:

· The mechanism of NIR in the Japanese banking system (effective from February 16, 2016).

· What is “interest” ?

· The treatment of NIR in a “freedom to contract“ jurisdiction.

· How to interpret contracts in which there is no explicit provision regarding NIR. Is it an implied agreement of the parties?

· A zero floor approach or non-zero floor approach.

· The impact on different transactions: loans, bonds, derivatives and structured products.

· The Financial Law Board’s paper of February 19, 2016.

· FSA’s no-action letter of April 22, 2016.

Akihiro Wani has almost 30 years of experience in the capital markets arena and is widely renowned as an expert in the financial sector. Throughout his extensive career, he has acted for major domestic financial institutions on financial regulations and cutting-edge derivatives transactions, including advising on the first public offering of credit-linked securities in Japan and the establishment of new commodity funds. 

Mr. Wani has also advised on the establishment of head/branch offices of type I financial instruments business operators, investment management companies, life insurance companies and other financial institutions, as well as acting on a wide variety of matters involving cross-border financial trading, securities, insurance and general corporate transactions.

Mr. Wani is ranked in Chambers Global and Chambers Asia Pacific in the elite Star Individual category for Japan: Capital Markets: Domestic: Securitisation & Derivatives. He is also listed as a Leading Lawyer in Japan for Banking and Finance and Structured Finance/Securitisation in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific.

Mr. Wani has been a professor of law at Sophia University Law School since 2004 and has written and lectured on various legal issues relating to international capital markets. Mr. Wani is counsel for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) in Japan, a member of the Financial Law Board and a Finance Expert of P.R.I.M.E. Finance in The Hague. He was appointed Representative Director, Chairman of JBA TIBOR Administration in April 2014, and also appointed as Financial Policies Monitor for the Financial Services Agency (FSA) in Japan in January 2016. Mr. Wani is a Bengoshi and a member of the Dai-ni Tokyo Bar Association.