More work will be required to design the details of this new regime, particularly to ensure that it can be applied proportionately to the biggest Australian-owned bank or the smallest credit union.
In these circumstances, short-term and long-term average contracted interest rates on new loans and discounts have moved at record low levels. On the stock exchange, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average had remained virtually unchanged since summer 1996 at around ¥ - 21,000, varying across firms. Recently, however, it has weakened somewhat.