The troubles at Silicon Valley Bank and its subsequent collapse have driven investor attention to the heavy investment in US bonds by Japan’s lenders, casting a pall over their shares.
SVB’s woes have been rooted in tens of billions of dollars it plowed into longer-term bonds, confident that rates would stay steady. Japanese banks have also stepped up investment in foreign debt over the past decade as outgoing Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s aggressive monetary easing crushed domestic yields.
Source : SVB Crisis Sparks Anxiety Over Japanese Banks’ Exposure to US Bonds