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 are released to the public with a lag of approximately six weeks. The data series are revised for up to 24 months after the initial "as of" reporting date.
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 (click here for more on the 2003 banking data revisions). 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" for liabilities and "bc-13005" for claims). The country code reference file 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.