Definition of Financial Services Agency (FSA) - How they work!

What is a Financial Services Agency, and what does it do？

It is the responsibility of the Financial Services Agency (also known as the FSA) in Japan to regulate the banking, insurance, and stock markets.

The Financial Services Agency's mission is to safeguard depositors, insurance policyholders, and investors in securities by ensuring Japan's financial system is stable and reliable. Through the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission, it is in charge of inspecting, supervising, and making transparent the financial system. Oversight of the Certified Public Accountants and the Auditing Oversight Board is also handled by this body.

As part of the financial reconstruction commission, the Financial Supervisory Agency was reorganized in July 2000 to become the FSA. This organization's headquarters are in Tokyo.

Learning About Banks and Other Financial Institutions (FSA)

A reorganization of Japan's Cabinet Office led to the Financial Services Agency, which is written in Japanese, becoming an outside institution of the Cabinet Office. Each year, the country's Minister of State for Financial Services receives a report on the organization's work.

To plan and make decisions about Japan's financial system, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) is in charge. It also supervises private sector financial institutions, sets up rules for trading in markets, and supervises CPAs and auditing firms.

Examples of Financial Services Companies in Action.

Japan's Financial Services Agency has recently started keeping an eye on cryptocurrency exchanges as part of its regulation of the country's financial activity.

If these exchanges don't stop dealing with certain types of cryptocurrency that are popular with cybercriminals and computer hackers, the FSA wants them to stop doing that to stop money laundering and stop criminal activity on the dark web. Forbes reported on this in April 2018.

According to a Forbes story, the FSA was apparently using “all available means to prohibit the usage of some alternative virtual currencies that have proved attractive to the underworld because they are difficult to trace.”

There have been a few instances when the government has even issued closure orders for individual bitcoin exchanges. The FSA in Japan ordered the closure of two crypto-exchanges for a long time in early April 2018 after Coincheck lost more than $532 million. The FSA was trying to improve regulation at the time.

Japan's bitcoin exchanges are required to have a license, which the FSA previously implemented. In the end, it was decided that Coincheck should look into the hacking incident and write a report about how to avoid it in the future.