The Guidelines to the international locational and consolidated banking statistics are intended to serve two main purposes: first, to provide compilers in reporting countries with definitions and guidelines for the reporting of data; and second, to give users a detailed account of current country practices regarding the coverage and disaggregation of the reported data. The two Guidelines replace the previous BIS Paper of 16 April 2003, as well as the more recent Guidelines for the new consolidated banking statistics, and will be updated on an ongoing basis from now on. No hard copies will be printed, as the versions on the BIS website should be referred to in all cases. In comparison with the previous documents, both Guidelines include numerous changes and updates on countries' reporting practices.
In a nutshell, the locational statistics provide an insight into the aggregate international claims and liabilities of all banks resident in the 41 reporting countries broken down by instrument, currency, sector, country of residence of counterparty, and nationality of reporting banks. In this system, both domestic and foreign-owned banking offices in the reporting countries record their positions on a gross basis (except for derivative contracts for which a master netting agreement is in place) and on an unconsolidated basis, including those vis-à-vis own affiliates, which is consistent with the principles of national accounts, money and banking, balance of payments and external debt statistics.
The consolidated statistics, which are described in separate Guidelines, collect quarterly data on domestically-owned banks' worldwide consolidated international financial claims broken down by remaining maturity and sector of borrower. They indicate the nature and extent of foreign claims of banks headquartered in 30 major financial centres.
Part I of the Guidelines covers reporting requirements and Part II country practices for the locational banking statistics, while Parts III and IV contain, respectively, a glossary of terms used in the locational and consolidated banking statistics and a list of international organisations and official monetary authorities.
The Guidelines have been prepared by the IFS unit of the BIS with the assistance of the central banks or official authorities contributing to the two sets of international banking statistics. The BIS is grateful to all these institutions for their cooperation and valuable advice in the preparation of these documents.