TOKYO, June 9 (Reuters) - Japan's financial watchdog is considering allowing fund managers to separate their equity trading and research fees so customers can select these services from different companies.
The practice, known as unbundling and already widely used in Europe and the United States, could be introduced in Japan in the near term in a bid to make Japanese equity markets more competitive, said Yuko Takagi, deputy director at the Financial Services Agency's securities business section.
"We are thinking about introducing an unbundling scheme if it could be a factor in raising the attractiveness of our market," Takagi said in a speech at an equities trading seminar.
Market players who attended the event were emphatic that such a move should be taken quickly.
"Trading costs will rise without this. For people who are managing funds, they may be missing the opportunity to take advantage of the best execution," Kazuhiro Kobayashi, a senior dealer at BlackRock Japan, said in a panel discussion before Takagi's speech.
Mark Burges Watson, chief operating officer at independent research house Japaninvest, said unbundling is common to exchanges, fund managers and brokerages in markets outside Japan.
"You simply have to be there. I think it's simple as that," he said.
The FSA hopes that the scheme could be introduced relatively quickly as it has been holding talks with the industry over the last year, Takagi said.
"We are holding discussions with the industry to come up with the best direction ... In a way, we are still in the middle of the process, so we cannot give many details now," Takagi said.
The regulator is considering initially rolling out the scheme to select participants before extending it to the whole market.
It would like to introduce unbundling by adapting existing laws rather than by crafting entirely new legislation, Takagi added. (Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Joseph Radford)