*** Bank desk views ahead of today's.......>

BOJ VIEW: *** Bank desk views ahead of today's MonPol decision 1/2

- Barclays: We see little room for surprises assuming Deputy Governor Wakatabe

supports existing policy for the time being, contrary to fellow QE advocate

Kataoka, the lone dissenter to date.

- Citi: We don't expect any fireworks. The projected timing for reaching the 2%

inflation target in the Outlook Report will likely be kept at around FY2019.

- Daiwa: Despite the change in personnel it seems very likely that the Board

will make no changes to its key policy settings. We expect that Goushi Kataoka

will continue to argue for further policy easing. The BoJ will also certainly

repeat its intention to maintain its JGB purchases 'at more or less the current

pace', but it remains to be seen whether this continues to be described as an

annual increase in its holdings of about Y80trn (so far this year the Bank's

purchases are running at less than half that pace). And despite increased

criticism of the policy - some of which is reportedly shared internally at the

BoJ - the Bank will also very likely re-commit to increase its ETF holdings at

an annual rate of Y6trn.