TOKYO (Archyde.com) – The Japan Securities Dealers Association on Thursday announced revisions to its guidelines on the sale of troubled financial products called structured bonds. Customers who do not have a certain level of investment experience or who will find it difficult to realize their life plans in the event of a loss are excluded from sales, and sales are limited to those with investment experience and those with a certain amount of financial assets.
Public comments will be solicited until March 16, and revisions will be made in April, aiming for enforcement from July.
Appropriate management involvement is required in matters such as the appropriateness of products to be sold, the selection of target customers, and understanding of complaints. In the explanatory materials for the products, we will ask them to indicate their risk characteristics, such as that they are “complex structured bonds,” that they are not for beginners in investing, and that they are not for long-term, stable asset management.
Despite the complex nature of the product, structured bonds have been sold without full awareness of the risks, and complaints from individual customers who have suffered losses due to sudden market changes are increasing.