U.S. Department of the Treasury

(Archived Content)

WASHINGTON - The final results from the annual survey of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities at the end of June 2015 were released today on the Treasury website at https://home.treasury.gov/data/treasury-international-capital-tic-system-home-page/tic-forms-instructions/securities-c-annual-cross-us-border-portfolio-holdings. The survey was undertaken jointly by Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The next survey will cover holdings at the end of June 2016; preliminary data are expected to be released by February 28, 2017.

Complementary surveys measuring U.S. holdings of foreign securities are also carried out annually. Data from the most recent survey, reporting on securities held at year-end 2015, are currently being processed. Preliminary results are expected to be reported by August 31, 2016.

The survey measured the value of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities as of June 30, 2015, to be $17,134 billion, with $6,655 billion held in U.S. equities, $9,547 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities [/1] (of which $1,154 billion are holdings of asset-backed securities (ABS) [/2] and $8,393 billion are holdings of non-ABS securities), and $932 billion held in U.S. short-term debt securities. The previous survey, conducted as of June 30, 2014, measured the value of total foreign holdings of U.S. securities at $16,417 billion, with holdings of $6,356 billion in U.S. equities, $9,183 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities, and $878 billion in U.S. short-term debt securities (see Table A).

[/1] Long-term debt securities have an original term-to-maturity of over one year.
[/2] Asset-backed securities are backed by pools of assets, such as pools of residential home mortgages or credit card receivables, which give the security owners claims against the cash flows generated by the underlying assets. Unlike most other debt securities, these securities generally repay both principal and interest on a regular basis, reducing the principal outstanding with each payment cycle.