Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 13 April 2012

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 13 April 2012 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 0.9 billion to EUR 228 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 0.5 billion to EUR 347 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) fell by EUR 6.6 billion to EUR 874.3 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 12.8 billion to EUR 158.8 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 35.3 billion to EUR 190.8 billion. On Wednesday, 11 April 2012, a main refinancing operation of EUR 62.6 billion matured and a new one of EUR 55.4 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 213.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in the amount of EUR 214 billion, with a maturity of one week. During the week a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 9.8 billion matured and a new one of EUR 11.4 billion was settled, while EUR 1.9 billion was repaid before maturity.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 2 billion (compared with EUR 1 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 742.8 billion (compared with EUR 784.8 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 0.3 billion to EUR 280.7 billion. This increase was due to the purchases under the second covered bond purchase programme that were settled during the week. Therefore, in the week ending 13 April 2012 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 214.2 billion, while those of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 56.8 billion and EUR 9.7 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 43 billion to EUR 129 billion.