Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 2 May 2014

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 2 May 2014 the decrease of EUR 3 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the sale of gold 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 210.3 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions.

In the past week the Eurosystem has not conducted any liquidity-providing transactions in connection with the standing swap arrangement 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) remained virtually unchanged at EUR 362 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 3.9 billion to EUR 950.3 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 14.2 billion to EUR 105.3 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 97.9 billion to EUR 545.3 billion. On Wednesday, 30 April 2014, a main refinancing operation of EUR 121.8 billion matured and a new one of EUR 172.6 billion, with a maturity of one week, was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 166.8 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 103.9 billion, with a maturity of one week.

During the week a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 5.0 billion matured and a new one of EUR 13.2 billion was settled, while EUR 9.6 billion of longer-term refinancing operations was repaid before maturity.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 0.8 billion (compared with virtually nil in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 39.1 billion (compared with EUR 24.0 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) decreased by EUR 5.0 billion to EUR 219.6 billion. This decrease was due to the redemption of securities acquired under the Securities Markets Programme and the second covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 2 May 2014 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 167.5 billion, while the values of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 37.8 billion and EUR 14.4 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) increased by EUR 74.0 billion to EUR 240.2 billion.