The initiative to collect information on the cross-border activities of internationally active banks resides with the Committee on the Global Financial System. Two sets of data are collected: the so-called locational banking statistics measure international claims and liabilities of all banks in the respective reporting countries using standard balance of payments concepts; the consolidated banking statistics cover worldwide consolidated claims of domestically owned banks, building on measures of country risk exposures used by banks in their internal risk management systems.
Every quarter central banks participating in the respective exercises collect data from the banks in their jurisdiction and calculate aggregate national data. These are provided to the BIS, which uses them as the basis for compiling global aggregates. The data are published as part of the BIS Quarterly Review, which also contains a description of the latest trends as well as in-depth analysis of particular issues of interest to policymakers and market participants.
The banking statistics bring together national data in a consistent and comparable way. The reporting frameworks provide a detailed breakdown according to currency composition, maturity, sectoral allocation, trading counterparty, instrument and so-called vis-à-vis country. The statistics can be used for various purposes. For instance, the data allow the extension of domestic monetary and credit aggregates to capture cross-border and foreign currency positions. They allow the monitoring of stocks and flows of external debt with breakdowns that are often not available from debtor sources, for instance vis-à-vis non-banks and by currency and maturity. Balance of payments compilers use the BIS statistics to fill gaps in reporting or to double-check national data sources. Finally, the data shed light on risk exposures of international creditor banks.
