Locational Banking Statistics – Q4 2016

View information release with charts and related data tables.

Summary

• Total external assets of banks resident in Ireland stood at €291 billion at the end of Q4 2016, a decrease of 7 per cent year on year.
• Total external liabilities of resident banks as at the end of the first quarter totalled €287 billion, down 5 per cent from the previous year.
• Loans and deposits are the predominant instrument type, accounting for approximately 63 per cent of both total external assets and total external liabilities at the end of Q4 2016.

Total External Assets

Total external assets of banks resident in Ireland stood at €291 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2016, down 7 per cent from the previous year. Domestic market¹ banks accounted for €76.9 billion, or 26 per cent, of total external assets (Chart 1).

External holdings of debt securities totalled €73 billion at the end of Q4. Securities held by domestic banks stood at €18 billion while IFSC banks accounted for the remaining €55 billion. Approximately €23 billion, or 42 per cent, of total external debt securities held by IFSC banks were issued by the government sector (Chart 2).

Total external loans and deposits (assets), which account for 63 per cent of external assets, stood at €184 billion at the end of Q4, a decrease of 3.5 per cent since Q3 2016. The United Kingdom was the largest counterparty country accounting for approximately €65.5 billion or 35.5 per cent of total external loans and deposits (Table 1).

Total External Liabilities

Total external liabilities of resident banks at the end of Q4 stood at €287 billion, equalling the level of Q3 2016. IFSC banks accounted for €222 billion, or 77 per cent, of total external liabilities (Chart 3).

The market value of debt securities issued by banks was €32.2 billion at the end of Q4 2016, with IFSC banks issuing 78 per cent of these liabilities. Non-resident banks were the largest holder of IFSC issued debt securities holding €16 billion or 64 per cent of the total external securities issued (Chart 4).

External loans and deposits (liabilities) stood at €185 billion at end Q4 2016, representing 64 per cent of total external liabilities. The United Kingdom was the largest counterparty country for these loans and deposits, accounting for approximately 28 per cent of the total amount outstanding (Table 2).

Further information

The data and explanatory notes can be accessed here.
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¹ Domestic market banks are banks that have a significant level of retail business with Irish households and NFCs, and would exclude the more internationally focused banks in the IFSC. A full list of these institutions is available on the Central Bank of Ireland website. Credit Unions are excluded from this set of statistics.