Release of provisional international banking statistics at end-September 2005

24 January 2006

The BIS is today releasing the provisional results of the locational and consolidated banking statistics for end-September 2005. The locational statistics provide an insight into the aggregate international claims and liabilities of all banks in the 39 reporting countries on a residence and nationality basis, whereas the consolidated statistics, which exclude banks' inter-office cross border business, indicate the nature and extent of foreign claims of banks headquartered in 30 major financial centres, as well as providing supplementary information about vis-à-vis countries' external debt.

The following trends were noted in the third quarter of 2005:

• a reduced expansion in the locational claims, moderated by less buoyant interbank business, as well as in the cross-border liabilities to non-banks, particularly vis-à-vis the developed countries;
• a stronger growth of the consolidated claims on banks and the non-bank private sector on a contractual (immediate borrower) basis, mostly in foreign currencies; on an ultimate risk basis, the exposures to emerging markets increased by 9%, while exposures to offshore centres dropped slightly.

A more detailed commentary on these sets of statistics will be made available in the BIS Quarterly Review to be published on 6 March 2006.

Questions arising from these statistics can be directed to:

Karsten von Kleist tel: + 41 61 280 8408, e-mail: karsten.von-kleist@bis.org

The BIS expects to release the provisional international banking statistics at end-December 2005 no later than 25 April 2006.