Treasury International Capital System

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Regarding
the TIC System and TIC Data

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A. General questions on the TIC system

1. What is the TIC system and how do I use it?
2. How are the various TIC data series on securities related?
3. The TIC data cover cross-border transactions. What kinds of transactions are considered “cross-border”?
4. Are there cross-border transactions and holdings that the TIC system does not capture?
5. How are TIC data used by BEA and the Federal Reserve? Where else are TIC data reported or used?
6. Where can I find comparable data for other countries?

B. Questions on country classification in TIC data:

7. What are the problems of geographic attribution for securities holdings and transactions in the TIC system?
8. Can I get a time series of securities holdings by country?
9. Where can I find data on OPEC countries or oil-exporters on the TIC website?

C. Questions on foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury Securities and Foreign Official holdings:

10. part a: How do the TIC data on major foreign holders of U.S. Treasury securities compare with FRBNY custody holdings?
    part b: How do the TIC data on foreign official transactions in U.S. agency securities compare with changes in FRBNY custody holdings?
11. What are the differences between the table on "Major Foreign Holders of U.S. Treasury Securities" (item Part A.3 under Statistics) and the table "Net Foreign Purchases of U.S. Long-Term Securities by Major Foreign Sector: U.S. Treasury Bonds and Notes" (item Part A.2.a under Statistics) ?"
12. Where can I find comprehensive measures of foreign official holdings of U.S. or dollar-denominated assets? Why are there differences between these various measures?

D. Questions on other types of securities in the TIC data:

13. Are mortgage-backed or other asset-backed securities included in the TIC data?
14. Are American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) included in the TIC data?
15. What securities are included in “corporate and other” bonds in the survey reports and the monthly TIC transactions data?
16. Where are data on short-term securities included?
17. Where can I find data on U.S. transactions in foreign securities?
18. Where are transactions in and holdings of dollar-denominated foreign bonds reported?
19. What are the stock swap data and how should I adjust for stock swaps?
20. Where can I find estimates of how much foreigner investors hold of the outstanding stock of U.S. securities?
21. Where can I find estimates of how much U.S. investors hold of the outstanding stock of foreign securities?

Last Updated: July 25, 2007