Bank of Japan officials are likely to start selling the central bank’s pile of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as early as next month, according to people familiar with the matter, in a process expected to take decades to complete.
The bank will offload the assets little by little to avoid roiling markets, as was decided at a September policy board meeting, the people said. The holdings had a market value of ¥83 trillion ($534 billion) at the end of September and a book value of ¥37.1 trillion, according to the central bank.
The September decision set out plans to sell the ETFs at a pace of ¥330 billion per year based on book value. A simple calculation indicates the process will take around 112 years if that pace remains unchanged.