U.S. Department of the Treasury

(Archived Content)

WASHINGTON - Preliminary data from a survey of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities at the end of June 2013 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.  Final survey results, which will include additional detail as well as possible revisions to the preliminary data, will be reported on April 30, 2014.  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 2014; preliminary data are expected to be released by February 28, 2015.

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 2013, are currently being processed.  Preliminary results are expected to be reported by August 29, 2014.

Overall Preliminary Results
The survey measured the value of foreign holdings of U.S. securities as of June 30, 2013, to be $14,410 billion, with $5,070 billion held in U.S. equities, $8,462 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities [1] (of which $1,060 billion are holdings of asset-backed securities (ABS) [2] and $7,402 billion are holdings of non-ABS securities), and $878 billion held in U.S. short-term debt securities.  The previous survey, conducted as of June 30, 2012, measured the value of total foreign holdings of U.S. securities at $13,261 billion, with holdings of $4,237 billion in U.S. equities, $8,213 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities, and $811 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.

Table A.  Foreign holdings of U.S. securities, by type of security, as of recent survey dates
(Billions of dollars)

Table B.  Foreign holdings of U.S. securities, by country and type of security,
for the major investing countries into the U.S., as of June 30, 2013
(Billions of dollars)

[i.].  Excludes Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, which are reported separately.
[ii.]  Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates.