Using mirror data to track international banking

Abstract

Recent enhancements to the BIS international banking statistics have led to improvements in data quality and coverage, with more information available about the instrument type, counterparty country by bank nationality and counterparty sector of banks' international positions. This study uses mirror data techniques to examine those data elements that are common both within the various international banking datasets and between these datasets and other external financial statistics such as the Balance of Payments, International Investment Position, Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey and the BIS International Debt Securities Statistics. We exploit the conceptual relationships between these data sources to check data validity at an aggregate level. The paper thus provides a road map for users to enhance their analyses using mirror data concepts.