BIS international banking statistics at end-December 2016

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) today released international banking statistics for the quarter ending in December 2016.

• International banking activity weakened in the last quarter of 2016, with cross-border claims dropping by $280 billion (view data). The decline was largely driven by lending to non-banks, such as hedge funds, governments and companies, and to other banks, excluding offices that are part of the same banking group (view data).
• This weakness mainly reflected a fall in cross-border lending to advanced economies. In contrast, cross-border bank claims on emerging market economies were almost stable, inching down by $9 billion (view data). There was a decrease in lending to Latin America and emerging Europe, while claims on Africa and the Middle East and emerging Asia and Pacific rose (view data).

Developments in the latest international banking statistics are summarised in the statistical release, together with charts showing historical data. Additional data are available on the BIS website, where they can be viewed as tables in PDF, browsed in the BIS Statistics Explorer or searched in the BIS Statistics Warehouse.

Data are subject to change. Revised data will be released concurrently with the forthcoming BIS Quarterly Review on 6 June 2017. The international banking statistics at end-March 2017 will be released no later than 21 July 2017.

Queries about the BIS international banking statistics may be directed to statistics@bis.org.