Page 80 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS184 Kimiaki S. et al.

International comparison of the BIS international
banking statistics: Estimates of the positions
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excluding trustee business
Kimiaki Shinozaki, Kaori Saito, Kazunori Hiyama, Kyosuke Shiotani
Bank of Japan, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract
The BIS international banking statistics (IBS) are statistics that the Bank for
International Settlements (BIS) and central banks worldwide compile in order
to capture capital flows and credit exposures through internationally active
banks. It is worth noting that the IBS reported by the Bank of Japan (BOJ)
include trust accounts in which a bank holds and manages funds or securities
on behalf of third parties. Attention should therefore be paid for international
comparative analysis of the Japan’s statistics and those of other major
reporting countries which exclude trustee business. This paper attempts to
provide an estimate of the IBS in Japan which exclude trust-account-based
positions, and compare the results with the IBS of banks of other major
nationalities. The results show that, while Japanese banks have been increasing
their foreign claims in recent years, the ratio of foreign claims to the
outstanding amount of total assets is not significantly high compared to banks
of other major nationalities. Moreover, claims vis-à-vis the United States are
demonstrated to account for a relatively high share of foreign claims, which
lead to a high share of U.S. dollar-denominated claims held by Japanese banks.

Keywords
International Banking Statistics; foreign claims; cross-currency funding; trustee
positions

1. Introduction
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The BIS International banking statistics (IBS) are global statistics that the
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Bank for International Settlements (BIS) compiles and publishes in
cooperation with the central banks worldwide in order to capture capital flows
and credit exposures, comprehensively, through internationally active banks.
While the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has been cooperating in compiling the statistics
by providing the figures of the reporting banks located in Japan with the BIS
quarterly, the BOJ has also been independently aggregating the figures and
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publishing the results (the IBS in Japan) in both Japanese and English. The IBS
are comprised of the following two datasets: (1) the Locational Banking
Statistics (LBS), which measure flows of external claims and liabilities held by
banks located in each reporting country, and (2) the Consolidated Banking
Statistics (CBS), which capture international credit exposures of banks
headquartered in each reporting country. The LBS and CBS enable one to

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