BRITAIN WANTS BANK REGULATION DEAL WITH JAPAN
Britain wants Japan to agree a timetable
for work towards joint rules on capital adequacy for banks
along the lines of a January outline agreement between the U.S
and the U.K., Corporate Affairs Minister Michael Howard said.
    Howard told a Nikkei conference on Tokyo financial markets
"I want to see an agreement between us on what progress is to be
made and the rate at which it will happen."
    Japanese vice-minister of finance for international affairs
Toyoo Gyohten told the conference yesterday he was ready to
discuss capital adequacy, but no negotiations were planned and
he could not see how or when agreement would be reached.
    Howard said another issue he would raise during a visit to
Japan, starting on April 13, was equal access for U.K.
Financial firms to the Japanese market.
    He said 14 London-based financial firms were based in
Tokyo, nine of them wholly British, with licences to deal in
securities. This compared with 58 wholly-licensed Japanese
firms in London.
    "I am not a protectionist. We welcome all these firms here.
But I want our firms to be able to compete just as freely in
Japan and at the moment they are not allowed to do so," he said.
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