UPDATE 1-BOJ offers JPY1.6 tln to financial institutions- Nikkei

March 24 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan will offer a total 1.6 trillion yen to financial institutions through two money market operations providing the same three-month funding at a fixed rate of 0.1 percent, the Nikkei reported.

Last Wednesday, the central bank decided to expand the scale of a fund supply tool it adopted in December to 20 trillion yen ($222 billion) from 10 trillion yen, and the duration of the fixed-rate loans was left at three months. [ID:nTOE619091]

The BOJ will keep unchanged the amount it provides in a single operation, but it will conduct two separate operations a week, the business daily said.

But "there may be times when we carry out the operations on different days," said an official at the BOJ's Financial Markets Department, as quoted by the newspaper.

Both operations were for funding starting Thursday, with one unwinding on June 22 and the other on June 25, the Nikkei said. (Reporting by Abhinav Sharma in Bangalore; Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy)