TOKYO, July 7 (Reuters) - Countries in Latin America and the Middle East are interested in selling yen-denominated bonds with the support of Japan, the head of the state-backed Japan Bank for International Cooperation said on Tuesday.
These countries were interested in selling so-called samurai bonds to raise cash and diversify their funding sources and currency exposure, Hiroshi Watanabe, president and chief executive of JBIC, said at the Reuters Japan Investment Summit.
"They want to be able to go to any capital market in the world. In the case of Asia and in the case of the Tokyo market, they haven't yet shown up, so in that case a guarantee is needed as an introduction," he said.
JBIC has allocated 500 billion yen this year for guarantees of samurai bonds in Asia, half of which has already been earmarked for Indonesia and the Philippines. But Watanabe said more could be allocated for countries outside Asia.
With the worst of the financial crisis past, credit has slowly begun to flow again in Asia. But private lenders are still demanding a high premium from non-investment grade borrowers.
JBIC has been trying to ease funding strains by providing loans to Japanese companies operating abroad and offering to back yen-denominated bond issues from sovereign governments. (Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo, Tetsushi Kajimoto and Kevin Plumberg; Editing by Hugh Lawson)