Locational Banking Statistics – Q4 2015

View information release with charts and related data tables.

Total External Position¹

• Total external assets of banks resident in Ireland stood at €313 billion at the end of Q4 2015, a decrease of 11 per cent year on year.
• Total external liabilities of resident banks as at the end of the fourth quarter totalled €299 billion, down 13 per cent from the previous year.
• Loans and deposits are the predominant instrument type, accounting for 61 per cent of total external assets and 62 per cent of total external liabilities at the end of Q4 2015.

Total External Assets

Total external assets of banks resident in Ireland stood at €313 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2015, down 11 per cent from the previous year. Domestic market² banks accounted for €88 billion, or 28 per cent, of total external assets (Chart 1).

External holdings of debt securities totalled €88 billion at the end of Q4, a reduction of 20 per cent over the year. Securities held by domestic banks stood at €18 billion. IFSC banks accounted for €70 billion of debt securities holdings. Approximately €27 billion, or 40 per cent, of total external debt securities held by IFSC banks were issued by governments (Chart 2).

Total external loans and deposits (assets), which account for 61 per cent of external assets, stood at €193 billion at the end of Q4, a decrease of 3 per cent since Q4 2015. The United Kingdom was the largest counterparty country accounting for approximately €71 billion or 37 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 €299 billion, a decrease of 13 per cent since Q4 2014. IFSC banks accounted for €225 billion, or 76 per cent, of total external liabilities (Chart 3).

The market value of debt securities issued was €42 billion at the end of Q4 2015 with IFSC banks issuing 85 per cent of these liabilities. The non-resident banking sector was the largest holder of IFSC issued debt securities holding €24 billion or 70 per cent of the total external securities issued (Chart 4).

External loans and deposits (liabilities) stood at €186 billion at end Q4 2015, representing 62 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 at Locational Statistics Data
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¹ Resident bank’s asset and liability positions with non-residents in all currencies and residents in foreign currency.
² 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 (PDF 50.03KB) of these institutions is available on the Central Bank of Ireland website. Credit Unions are excluded from this set of statistics.