7
government bond yield, is quite illuminating (Chart 8). From the early 1990s to the early 2000s, the
stock yield and the Treasury yield moved almost in tandem and the yield spread remained mostly
around zero; after that, however, we find persistent and very large spreads. The size of the spread is
now beyond a level that can be explained by expected growth in corporate earnings or equity risk
premium.
6
Such persistently wide yield spreads indicate that the demand-supply balance of safe
assets has been much tighter than that of risky assets. An additional demand for safe debt issued by
the U.S. government has probably resulted from the need for emerging market authorities to invest
their foreign exchange reserves or from the need to comply with regulations that require financial
institutions to hold certain amounts of safe assets. With such increase in demand for U.S.
Treasuries, the price of Treasuries will rise (and their yields will fall), and following the recent
global financial crisis, the demand for safe assets from U.S. investors was fulfilled by debt
instruments substitutable for U.S. Treasuries and issued by financial institutions. In particular,
dollar-denominated highly rated paper issued by non-U.S. banks, mainly from Canada and
Australia, was preferred by U.S. investors.
7
In this environment, the U.S. MMF reform, which I mentioned a few minutes ago, had the effect of
further increasing demand for U.S. Treasuries.
8
As funds shifted from prime MMFs, which invest
in CP and CDs, to government MMFs, which invest in U.S. government securities, the yield on
U.S. government securities was pushed down (Chart 9). When Treasury Bill yields fall well below
LIBOR, which is the benchmark yield for debt instruments issued by private banks, the demand for
safe debt issued by banks will increase because substitutable Treasury Bills become relatively
expensive. That is, while prime MMFs have become less attractive as safe assets, an increase in
demand for U.S. government debt without a concomitant increase in supply could also lead to an
increase in safe debt issued by financial intermediaries so that the safe asset share may be kept
constant. Such overall rebalancing of the financial asset portfolio in the U.S. dollar financial
market enabled major Japanese banks to adjust the liability side of their balance sheets and focus
on increasing client-related deposits.
6
See Ichiue, H., T. Kimura, T. Nakamura, and H. Hasebe, "The Supply and Demand of Safe Assets and the
Scarcity Premium for Government Bonds," Bank of Japan Review, 12-J-1, January 2012 (in Japanese only).
7
See Bertaut, C., A. Tabova, and V. Wong, "The Replacement of Safe Assets: Evidence from the U.S. Bond
Portfolio," Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, International Finance Discussion Papers,
No.1123, October 2014.
8
The following paper reviews the shift of funds from prime MMFs to government MMFs from the
perspective of the supply and demand for safe assets: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, "Demand
and Supply of Safe Assets in the Economy," memo, March 2014.