Consolidated opening financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 1 January 2011 and Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 7 January 2011

Consolidated opening financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 1 January 2011

Following the adoption of the euro by Estonia, Eesti Pank, the central bank of Estonia, joined the Eurosystem on 1 January 2011. As a consequence, the ECB is publishing a consolidated opening financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 1 January 2011, which includes the balance sheet figures of Eesti Pank. Items previously denominated in Estonian kroon have been moved from items “denominated in foreign currency” to items “denominated in euro”. Transactions and balances of accounts held with residents of Estonia have been moved from “non-euro area” balance sheet items to “euro area” items. Furthermore, the item capital and reserves (liability item 12) has increased in comparison with that in the consolidated weekly financial statement as at 31 December 2010 on account of the entry of Eesti Pank into the Eurosystem.

Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 7 January 2011 (compared with the consolidated opening financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 1 January 2011)

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 7 January 2011 the increase of EUR 21 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) mainly reflected the purchase of gold by Eesti Pank in order to cover its contribution to the foreign reserve assets of the ECB according to Article 30.1 and Article 48.1 of the Statute of the ESCB.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) increased by EUR 0.2 billion to EUR 180.3 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 0.3 billion to EUR 323.5 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 5.4 billion to EUR 834.8 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 9.9 billion to EUR 81.6 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 43.2 billion to EUR 338.3 billion. On Wednesday, 5 January 2011, a main refinancing operation of EUR 227.9 billion matured and a new one of EUR 195.7 billion was settled. Also on Wednesday, 5 January 2011, a liquidity-providing fine-tuning operation of EUR 20.6 billion, with a maturity of 13 days, matured. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 60.8 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 73.5 billion, with a maturity of one week.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was virtually nil (approximately the same as on 1 January 2011), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 81 billion (compared with EUR 104.5 billion on 1 January 2011).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 0.1 billion to EUR 134.9 billion. This increase was due to the net result of settled purchases under the Securities Markets Programme and the maturity of securities under the covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 7 January 2011 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 74.1 billion and EUR 60.8 billion respectively. Both 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 36.8 billion to EUR 176.9 billion.