Refer to FAQ number 2 for the most recent information on TIC data on holdings of securities.
The following is additional historical information on the annual surveys.
Cross-border holdings of long-term securities (securities with an original term-to-maturity in excess of one year) are measured at market value through security-level surveys (that is, information is reported separately for each security) that collect data from custodians, issuers, and investors. Previously, such surveys were conducted relatively infrequently: surveys of foreign holdings of U.S. securities were conducted about once every five years, beginning in 1974; surveys of U.S. holdings of foreign securities were conducted about once every three or four years, but only beginning in 1994. Beginning in 2002, annual surveys of foreign holdings of U.S. securities are conducted as of end-June on TIC Form SHL/SHLA; beginning in 2003, annual surveys of U.S. holdings of foreign securities are conducted as of end-December on annual TIC Form SHC/SHCA. Because these data on holdings are security-specific, they permit extensive verification and thus are considered highly reliable. But because the data require thorough editing, they are available only after a lag of about eight months.
Data have been collected for short-term securities (securities with an original term-to-maturity of one year or less) beginning with the survey of U.S. holdings of foreign securities as of December 2001 and with the survey of foreign holdings of U.S. securities as of June 2002.