Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 21 March 2014

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 21 March 2014 gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) remained unchanged.

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 208 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) increased by EUR 0.8 billion to EUR 359.9 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 1.2 billion to EUR 936.9 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 21.3 billion to EUR 77.7 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 15.8 billion to EUR 434 billion. On Wednesday, 19 March 2014, a main refinancing operation of EUR 92.6 billion matured and a new one of EUR 96.9 billion, with a maturity of one week, was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 175.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in the same amount, with a maturity of one week.

During the week, EUR 10.1 billion of longer-term refinancing operations was repaid before maturity.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 0.9 billion (compared with virtually nil in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 34.5 billion (compared with EUR 23.5 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) decreased by EUR 0.3 billion to EUR 228.6 billion. This decrease was due to the redemption of securities acquired under the first covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 21 March 2014 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 175.7 billion, while the values of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 38.1 billion and EUR 14.8 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 31.6 billion to EUR 195.2 billion.