U.S. Department of the Treasury

(Archived Content)

The final results from the annual survey of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities at end-June 2011 are released today on the U.S. Treasury web site at (https://home.treasury.gov/data/treasury-international-capital-tic-system-home-page/tic-forms-instructions/securities-c-annual-cross-us-border-portfolio-holdings).  A revised table on Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities, through end-February 2012, is also released at (http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfh.txt ). 

This 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.  The next survey will be for end-June 2012 and preliminary data are expected to be released by February 28, 2013.   

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 2011, are currently being processed.  Preliminary results are expected to be reported by August 31, 2012.

Overall Results

The survey measured foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities as of June 30, 2011, to be $12,440 billion, with $3,830 billion held in U.S. equities, $7,731 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities1 (of which $1,140 billion are holdings of asset-backed securities (ABS) 2 and $6,591 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, 2010, measured total foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities at $10,691 billion, with holdings of $2,814 billion in U.S. equities, $6,921 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities, and $956 billion in U.S. short-term debt securities (see Table 1). 

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.

About TIC Data

The monthly table on Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities reflects foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury securities, collected primarily on the basis of custodial data.  These data help provide a window into foreign ownership of U.S. Treasury securities, but they cannot attribute holdings of U.S. Treasury securities with complete accuracy. For example, if a U.S. Treasury security purchased by a foreign resident is held in a custodial account in a third country, the true ownership of the security will not be reflected in the data.  The custodial data will also not properly attribute U.S. Treasury securities managed by foreign private portfolio managers who invest on behalf of residents of other countries.  In addition, foreign countries may hold dollars and other U.S. assets that are not captured in the TIC data.  For these reasons, it is difficult to draw precise conclusions about changes in the foreign holdings of U.S. financial assets by individual countries from TIC data.

Table 1.  Foreign holdings of U.S. securities, by type of security, as of recent survey dates
(Billions of dollars)

Table 2.  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, 2011
(Billions of dollars)

*   Greater than zero but less than $500 million.
1.  Excludes Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, which are reported separately.
2.  Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates.