Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 19 November 2010


Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 19 November 2010 the increase of EUR 2 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the net result of trades in gold coin by one Eurosystem central bank.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) increased by EUR 0.1 billion to EUR 177 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions and US dollar liquidity-providing operations (see below).

The liquidity-providing transactions were conducted by the Eurosystem in connection with the temporary reciprocal currency arrangement (swap line) that the European Central Bank has with the Federal Reserve System.

The holdings by the Eurosystem of marketable securities other than those held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.2) increased by EUR 2.7 billion to EUR 317.3 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 1.7 billion to EUR 812.8 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 23.5 billion to EUR 101.6 billion.

Items related to monetary policy operations

The Eurosystem’s net lending to credit institutions (asset item 5 minus liability items 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5 and 4) decreased by EUR 9.9 billion to EUR 421.6 billion. On Wednesday, 17 November 2010, a main refinancing operation of EUR 175 billion matured and a new one of EUR 186 billion was settled. Also on Wednesday, 17 November 2010, a liquidity-providing fine-tuning operation of EUR 12.6 billion, with a maturity of six days, matured. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 64 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 65 billion, with a maturity of one week.

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 672.1 million to EUR 126.8 billion as a result of settled purchases of EUR 713.3 million under the Securities Markets Programme and maturing transactions of EUR 41.2 million under the covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 19 November 2010 the value of the accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme and that of the portfolio held under the covered bond purchase programme totalled EUR 65.8 billion and EUR 61 billion respectively. Both portfolios are accounted for on a held-to-maturity basis.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 3.4 billion (compared with EUR 2.1 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 28.9 billion (compared with EUR 20.2 billion in the preceding week).

Current accounts of euro area credit institutions

As a result of all transactions, the current account position of credit institutions with the Eurosystem (liability item 2.1) decreased by EUR 22.8 billion to EUR 222.2 billion.