The H.8 release provides an estimated weekly aggregate balance sheet for all commercial banks in the United States; it also includes separate aggregations for domestically chartered banks (including the large and small size categories) and for foreign-related institutions.

The large-bank reporting panel of the H.8 release generally includes the largest domestically chartered banks, institutions that account for approximately two-thirds of the assets of all domestically chartered banks in the United States. There are about 30 large banks in the sample of banks underlying the H.8 release. Because reporting is voluntary, the large-bank reporting panel does not correspond exactly to the largest domestically chartered banks. In addition, some banks that would otherwise be considered large but whose assets are concentrated in credit card loans have been placed on the small-bank reporting panel because the less-detailed balance sheet data that small banks report are considered adequate to capture their lending activities. The reporting panel for the large banks is reviewed every three years; at the last review in July 2007, the asset size for inclusion in the large-bank panel was approximately $40 billion.

The data for large banks are simply aggregations of the banks selected for that size category. The data for small banks are based on a sample of about 1,000 institutions and represent an estimate of the aggregate balance sheet of all domestically chartered banks not included in the large bank size category. To maintain historical continuity within each reporting panel, the data for large and small domestically chartered banks are adjusted to remove the estimated effects of mergers and panel shifts between these two groups.

Foreign-related institutions include U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks as well as Edge Act and agreement corporations. Data for U.S. branches and agencies are based on a sample of about 60 institutions. All Edge Act and agreement corporations provide data at a quarterly frequency; the weekly data are estimated by linear interpolation. These institutions account for approximately one percent of the assets at all foreign-related institutions.

Seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted data are provided for each balance sheet item, for all bank groups. Seasonal factors are estimated separately for all commercial banks, domestically chartered banks, and large domestically chartered banks. The seasonally adjusted data for small domestically chartered banks and for foreign-related institutions are derived from seasonally adjusted data for all banks, domestic banks, and large banks. This residual methodology may occasionally result in negative seasonally adjusted levels for some balance sheet items at small domestically chartered banks and at foreign-related institutions.

The reporting forms and instructions on which the reported weekly data are based may be found at www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/reportforms/default.cfm. The reporting forms are FR 2416 (for large banks), FR 2644 (for small banks), and FR 2069 (for U.S. branches and agencies). The release, published weekly, is typically available to the public by 4:15 p.m. every Friday. If Friday is a federal holiday, then the data are released on Thursday.

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