TOKYO, July 10 (Reuters) - Many Japanese private banks who met with the Bank of Japan on Tuesday called for the central bank to halve its monthly bond purchases by around 2026, two officials with direct knowledge of the deliberations told Reuters.
While the participants had various views on the size and pace of the tapering, many of them said the BOJ should trim monthly bond buying to around 3 trillion yen ($18.6 billion) two years from now, the officials said.
The BOJ currently buys roughly 6 trillion yen in Japanese government bonds (JGB) each month.
The BOJ, for its part, likely has a rough scenario that aims to taper its bond buying to around 2 trillion yen per month by March 2026, said a third official who has regular interaction with central bank executives.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The BOJ held a meeting with financial institutions on Tuesday to collect their views on how the central bank should taper its huge bond buying, and trim its nearly $5 trillion balance sheet.
The findings will be taken into account when the BOJ finalizes its taper plan at its policy meeting on July 30-31.
At its previous meeting in June, the BOJ decided to lay out in July a detailed plan on how it will slow its bond buying in a timeframe of about one to two years.
Japanese bond market players surveyed by Reuters earlier this month said they expect the BOJ to slow monthly bond buying to around 4.65 trillion yen on average in the initial year, and to 3.55 trillion yen in the second year.
($1 = 161.5300 yen) (Reporting by Takahiko Wada and Yoshifumi Takemoto, writing by Leika Kihara; editing by Kim Coghill)
