Residency/Local and Nationality/Global Views of Financial Positions

Foreword

In 2009 the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board submitted a report to the G20 titled "The Financial Crisis and Information Gaps". The Report contained 20 recommendations, which Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the G20 formally endorsed. Follow-up reports were submitted by the IMF and FSB to the G20 in June 2010 and June 2011.

One of the G20 recommendations (#13) asks that the Interagency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics (IAG) investigate the issue of monitoring and measuring cross-border exposures, including foreign exchange and derivatives exposures, of financial and non-financial corporations with the intention of promoting reporting guidance and the dissemination of data. Work in this area needs to address the methodological and practical issues of handling the concept of consolidation and the definition of corporate groups.

In order to start the reflection on these issues the Irving Fisher Committee on Central Bank Statistics (IFC) agreed to sponsor a workshop, together with the IAG, on "Residential/Local and Nationality/Global Views of Financial Positions". The workshop was held in Basel on 18 and 19 January 2011 and was attended by over 40 experts from central banks, national statistical agencies, supervisory authorities and international organisations.

This working paper brings together the discussion paper and a number of other background documents prepared for the workshop. It also provides a summary of the discussions that took place in the different sessions. A copy of specific presentations for which no paper was submitted is available from the ifc.secretariat@bis.org.

On the basis of the discussions at the workshop and further internal discussions the IAG will be producing an Issue Paper on "Perspective on Global Consolidation Concepts". The intention is to share this paper with the various international statistical and data collection groups that are working on developing methodological guidelines with respect to consolidation. The objective is to ensure that a clear and consistent set of concepts, terms and definitions can be developed that can be used by all relevant groups as well as by compilers and analysts and the national level.