A single organization did more than any other last year to breath new life into the market for Japanese international borrowings. It goes under the unfamiliar name of Japan Bank for International Cooperation or JBIC - pronounced Jaybic - as almost everyone who deals with it now calls it. JBIC made two landmark issues last year: the first in early February was an innovative $1 billion floating-rate note issue under its old name of Export-Import Bank of Japan (Jexim); then in October JBIC launched its new name with a 10-year $1 billion fixed-rate offering in the Eurodollar market.
JBIC was formed in October last year by bringing together Jexim and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund, responsible for much of Japan's aid programme. The new body, wholly government-owned like its two predecessor components, conducts Japan's external economic policy and economic cooperation. In fact the new body maintains two separate accounts, for international financial operations and overseas economic cooperation, corresponding to the two former bodies, so the old Jexim financial team under capital markets division director Yasuo Hirota remains in place.
The February 1999 issue was a first in several ways: the largest Japanese government-guaranteed bond ever and the first FRN by a Japanese government-guaranteed institution (JGGI).