Japanese pension fund to shoulder costs of BOJ's negative rate - Nikkei (8306)

TOKYO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the world's largest pension fund, has decided to shoulder the costs charged on its deposits under the central bank's negative rate policy, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Monday.

GPIF currently entrusts its deposits to a trust bank arm of Mitsubishi Financial Group, which had been shouldering the cost of a 0.1 percent charge the BOJ imposes on a portion of excess reserves parked with the central bank.

With GPIF's deposits piling up because of its meagre returns on investment, the trust bank arm had been requesting the pension fund pay for the negative rate charge, the Nikkei said.

GPIF decided to accept the request and pay the interest on deposits mandated by the BOJ's policy, partly to ease the burden on the trust bank, the newspaper reported, without citing sources. (Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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