BOJ data stated that major banks, including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc and other top lenders, have ¥106.7 trillion (US$712 billion) in reserves that are currently paying no interest.

“They have another ¥79.4 trillion on deposit that is earning 0.1%,” it said.

In announcing the end of its negative interest rate policy today, the BOJ said it will pay 0.1% interest to current account balances, excluding required reserves.

“The new interest rate will apply from March 21,” the central bank said.

If that is applied to current reserves, major banks will earn additional interest of about 100 billion yen annually, according to Bloomberg calculations.

Some banks have announced plans to raise rates for retail depositors.

Following the BOJ’s decision, Mizuho Financial Group Inc CEO Masahiro Kihara said Japan’s third-largest lender will raise the interest rates it pays to savers to spur deposits as a source of funding.

Kihara did not say what rate Mizuho will pay savers. The bank currently pays 0.001% on ordinary deposits. Before the BOJ introduced negative interest rates in 2016, banks generally paid 0.02% interest.

While banks have the opportunity to earn interest, they are likely to deploy the cash to where there are better returns.

“They will likely shift their current account balances at the BOJ to government bonds as yields rise,” said a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence Hideyasu Ban.

“Banks with higher weights in domestic interest-earnings assets and/or cash sitting at the BOJ will have higher earnings sensitivity to domestic rate rises,” Ban wrote in a report.

The Topix Banks Index traded about 0.2% lower after the BOJ decision.