Press Releases

Report On U.S. Portfolio Holdings Of Foreign Securities

(Archived Content)

WASHINGTON – The findings from the annual survey of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities at year-end 2015 were released today and posted on the Treasury web site at https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Pages/fpis.aspx.

The survey was undertaken jointly by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. 

A complementary survey measuring foreign holdings of U.S. securities is also conducted annually.  Data from the most recent such survey, which reports on securities held at end-June 2016, are currently being processed.  Preliminary results are expected to be reported on February 28, 2017.

Overall Results

This survey measured the value of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities at year-end 2015 as approximately $9.5 trillion, with $6.8 trillion held in foreign equity, $2.3 trillion held in foreign long-term debt securities (original term-to-maturity in excess of one year), and $0.4 trillion held in foreign short-term debt securities.  The previous such survey, conducted as of year-end 2014, measured U.S. holdings of approximately $9.6 trillion, with $6.7 trillion held in foreign equity, $2.5 trillion held in foreign long-term debt securities, and $0.4 trillion held in foreign short-term debt securities.  The decline during 2015 occurred entirely in debt.

U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities by country at the end of 2015 were the largest for the United Kingdom ($1.24 trillion), followed by the Cayman Islands ($1.22 trillion), Japan ($822 billion), and Canada ($705 billion) (see Table 2).  These four countries attracted 42 percent of total U.S. portfolio investment, versus 41 percent the previous year.
The surveys are part of an internationally coordinated effort under the auspices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to improve the measurement of portfolio asset holdings.

Table 1.  U.S. holdings of foreign securities, by type of security, as of survey dates [1]
(Billions of dollars)

Type of Security

Dec. 31, 2014

Dec. 31, 2015

 

 

 

Long-term Securities

9,235

9,103

            Equity

6,727

6,756

            Long-term debt

2,509

2,347

Short-term debt securities

369

351

Total

9,604

9,455

U.S. Portfolio Investment by Country

Table 2.  Market value of U.S. portfolio holdings of foreign securities, by country and type of security, for countries attracting the most U.S. investment, as of December 31, 2015 [1]


(Billions of dollars)

Country or category

Total

Equity

Debt

Total

Long-term

Short-term

United Kingdom

1,240

897

343

302

41

Cayman Islands

1,217

915

302

300

2

Japan

822

690

131

84

47

Canada

705

325

380

323

56

Ireland

498

422

77

57

20

France

474

327

146

118

29

Switzerland

420

407

13

11

2

Netherlands

404

250

154

141

13

Germany

378

283

95

76

18

Australia

296

139

157

113

44

Bermuda

217

187

30

30

*

Korea, South

171

139

32

29

3

Mexico

148

56

91

87

4

Sweden

138

86

51

32

19

Hong Kong [2]

136

129

7

5

2

Rest of world

2,191

1,504

690

639

51

Total

9,455

6,756

2,698

2,347

351

* Greater than zero but less than $500 million.
[1] The stock of foreign securities for December 31, 2015, reported in this survey may not, for a number of reasons, correspond to the stock of foreign securities on December 31, 2014, plus cumulative flows reported in Treasury's transactions reporting system.  An analysis of the relationship between the stock and flow data is available in Table 4 and the associated text of the "Report on U.S. Portfolio Holdings of Foreign Securities at end-year 2015."  Items may not sum to totals due to rounding.
[2] China, Hong Kong, and Macau are each reported separately.