International banking statistics at end-March 2014

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) today released international banking statistics at end-March 2014.

• Between end-December 2013 and end-March 2014, the cross-border claims of BIS reporting banks rose by $580 billion. This marked the first substantial quarterly increase since late 2011. The overall increase was broadly spread across countries and sectors.
• The largest increase in the first quarter of 2014 was reported in claims vis-à-vis borrowers in China. This increase took the outstanding stock of cross-border claims on China above $1 trillion at end-March 2014, including inter-office transactions by Chinese and other banks.
• Claims on the rest of Asia, Latin America and Africa and the Middle East also increased, albeit at a more modest pace. By contrast, claims on emerging Europe fell for a fourth consecutive quarter.

Developments in the latest international banking statistics, including breaks in series arising from methodological changes, are summarised in the Statistical release. Data are available on the BIS website, via the BIS WebStats query tool, or as tables in PDF. Data are subject to change; revised data will be released in conjunction with the forthcoming BIS Quarterly Review on 14 September 2014. The international banking statistics at end-June 2014 will be released on or before 23 October 2014.

Queries regarding the international banking statistics may be directed to statistics@bis.org.