A settlement system malfunction at the Bank of Japan severely disrupted the execution of transactions with seven of the nation's leading banks and brokerages at the close of business Monday, according to a report by the Kyodo news agency.
The wire service says the glitch disrupted the exchange of electronic records related to government bonds and the current accounts held by financial institutions at the BOJ.
The breakdown added an extra one-and-a-half hours to the schedule for processing government bonds, says Kyodo, and had a knock-on effect to the settlement of transactions among the current accounts of banks on the central bank's books.
According to Kyodo, the central bank blamed a "defect" in its own settlement systems for the problems. It says it expects the system to function smoothly Tuesday.