Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 23 December 2011

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 23 December 2011 the increase of EUR 1 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the purchase of gold by one Eurosystem central bank and the technical adjustment carried out by another 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 22.5 billion to EUR 264 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) decreased by EUR 0.1 billion to EUR 337.6 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 8.3 billion to EUR 890.9 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 20.3 billion to EUR 66 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) increased by EUR 12.7 billion to EUR 255.9 billion. On Wednesday, 21 December 2011, a main refinancing operation of EUR 291.6 billion matured and a new one of EUR 169 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 207.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 211 billion. On Thursday, 22 December 2011, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 140.6 billion matured and a new one of EUR 29.7 billion, with a maturity of 98 days, was settled. On the same day, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 489.2 billion, with a maturity of 1,134 days, was settled, with the allotment amount including EUR 45.7 billion that was moved from the 12-month longer-term refinancing operation allotted in October 2011.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 6.1 billion (compared with EUR 4.5 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 411.8 billion (compared with EUR 214.1 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 0.5 billion to EUR 273 billion. This increase was almost exclusively due to settled purchases under the second covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 23 December 2011 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 211 billion, while those of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 59 billion and EUR 3.1 billion respectively. All three portfolios are accounted for on a held-to-maturity basis.

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 33.1 billion to EUR 265 billion.