Description of Banking
Claims and Banking Liabilities Data
The data series are based on submissions
of monthly reports on own dollar liabilities
and claims and on certain custody liabilities
denominated in dollars. Quarterly reports are
filed for liabilities and claims payable in
foreign currencies and on dollar claims held
for domestic customers. These reports are
mandatory and are filed by banks and other
depository institutions in the U.S. (
including agencies, branches and other
banking affiliates of foreign-based banks),
International Banking Facilities (IBFs), bank
holding companies, and brokers and dealers in
the U.S., who, for their own account or for
the account of their customers, have
reportable liabilities to, or claims on,
foreign residents. The data series are
revised for up to 24 months after the initial
"as of" reporting date. The data are released to
the public with a lag of approximately 1½ months.
Broadly, these data series include
liabilities and claims arising from deposits
due to or from foreign entities, financial
instruments including short-term negotiable
securities such as U.S. Treasury bills and
certificates with an original maturity of one
year or less, borrowings from foreigners and
loans and other credits to foreigners. Banks
include their liabilities and claims on
foreign branches and other affiliates that
arise out of normal banking business; effective
February 2003, these data additionally include
positions with affiliated foreign offices of brokers
and dealers. Excluded from all
respondents' reports are direct investments,
positions arising from equity securities and
debt issues with original maturity of more
than one year, contingent items; and
off-balance sheet contracts, including
unsettled spot and forward foreign exchange
contracts, options, and warrants.
In general, information is reported
opposite the country or geographical area
where the foreigner is located, as shown on
records of reporting institutions. However,
information may not always reflect the
ultimate ownership of assets. Reporting
institutions are not required to go beyond
addresses shown on their records; therefore,
they may not be aware of the actual country
of domicile of the ultimate debtor or
creditor.
The data on banking liabilities and claims
are available on this website as separate
monthly time series for each country or
geographical area listed in Table CM I-4
(liabilities) and Table CM II-3 (claims) of
the Treasury Bulletin. Components shown are
positions reported as of end of reference
month. NOTE:
As some items are reported quarterly,
complete data components for any country line
are shown only for calendar quarter-end
months. For months other than quarter-ends,
data users may wish to use the most recent
quarter-end value for a particular data
component not available monthly.
The data for any single country can be
downloaded in one of three ways: as part of
the global file (data, by country, for all
available countries); as part of one of four
regional files (data, by country, for all
countries in specified region); or
individually. In each data file, whether the
global, a regional, or a country file,
individual countries are identified by a
distinct five-digit, numerical 'country code'
found in the first column of each file. The
country code is also used in the filename for
individual country files. (For example, the
country code assigned to the United Kingdom
is 13005; its individual file name is
'bl-13005.txt' for liabilities and
'bc-13005.txt' for claims). The
provides a cross reference of country lines and their
corresponding codes. Data for countries that
are not listed separately are incorporated
under the 'other' regional lines for the
region in which the country belongs. For
example, reportable liabilities or claims
vis-a-vis Iceland, if any, would be included
under 'Other Europe', country code 18007.
