Today, the major monetary operation tools have been shifted to the open market operations to control money market interest rates. Incidentally, the Bank of Japan has been deploying various non-traditional policies over the past 15 years, given that we are faced with short-term interest rates that are currently practically zero.
In the area of payment and settlement systems, the development of computer systems and information technology brought major changes in the way funds and securities were settled. Fifty years ago, settlement was conducted by deferred netting. Today, the BOJ NET system settles the funds among the counterparty financial institutions on-line and on a real-time gross basis (RTGS).