Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 11 May 2012

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 11 May 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 0.2 billion to EUR 224.7 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions and US dollar liquidity-providing operations (see below).

US dollar liquidity operations

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) increased by EUR 0.1 billion to EUR 325.6 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 1 billion to EUR 875.2 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) fell by EUR 8.7 billion to EUR 99.7 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) increased by EUR 44.7 billion to EUR 145.9 billion. On Wednesday, 9 May 2012, a main refinancing operation of EUR 34.4 billion matured and a new one of EUR 39.3 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 214 billion matured and new deposits in the same amount were collected. Also on Wednesday, 9 May 2012, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 11.4 billion matured and a new one of EUR 13 billion was settled.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 1.6 billion (compared with EUR 1.1 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 763.1 billion (compared with EUR 801.5 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 0.2 billion to EUR 282 billion. This increase was due to the purchases settled under the second covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 11 May 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 56.6 billion and EUR 11.3 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 50 billion to EUR 146.8 billion.