Bank of Japan scraps overnight call rate, sets base money as new target

The Bank of Japan decided on a radical overhaul of its policy framework on Thursday, shifting its target when setting monetary policy to base money from the current overnight call rate.

The central bank said it will double its holdings of long-term government bonds and exchange-traded funds while buying government bonds with all maturities, including 40-year bonds.

"The BOJ will conduct money-market operations so that the monetary base will increase at an annual pace of about 60 to 70 trillion yen ($754 billion)," the BOJ said in a statement.

The decisions were made by unanimous votes.

BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will hold a news conference after his debut policy-setting meeting, with his embargoed comments to come out any time after 4:15 p.m. (3:15 a.m. ET).

(Reporting by Leika Kihara and Stanley White; Editing by Edmund Klamann)