The Financial Action Task Force's Fourth Mutual Evaluation of Japan

Chika Igarashi is a partner at Nishimura & Asahi specializing in the fields of (i) Banking and Financial Regulations. Chika also has extensive experience in advising a wide range of corporations on (ii) the countermeasures for AML/CFT (anti-money laundering/countering financing of terrorism) and foreign economic sanctions, including OFAC regulations; (iii) data privacy; (iv) global compliance and governance, including the establishment and implementation of whistleblowing and internal control systems; and (v) dispute resolution and crisis management involving cross-border aspects for corporate clients. She also advises corporations doing business in (vi) Africa and the Middle East.

His extensive experience includes securitization transactions regarding a wide variety of receivables and other asset classes as a legal counsel for originators, arrangers, and trustees, and he has worked on structured finance transactions involving various schemes, including those achieved for the first time ever in Japan. He has a great deal of experience engaging in the development of new trust products and complicated trust schemes. As he has worked at the Corporate Accounting and Disclosure Division, the Planning and Coordination Bureau, the Financial Services Agency of Japan, and also has experience engaging in the planning of the financial regulations there, he has provided advice to many financial institutions, including banks, trust banks, securities firms, insurance companies, and nonbanks, as well as business companies and start-ups which enter the financial businesses. He also has a great deal of experience advising companies with respect to the application of the financial regulations on novel transactions or products, including FinTech areas. He has a wealth of experience participating as a member of various study groups and working groups, including government and academia conferences, and has frequently written and spoken on a wide range of topics involving legal systems and finance practice; thus, he is recognized as an opinion leader in the field of finance law.