Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 1 June 2012

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 1 June 2012 the decrease of EUR 1 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) mainly reflected the sale of gold coin by three Eurosystem central banks.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) increased by EUR 0.7 billion to EUR 223.2 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) decreased by EUR 0.3 billion to EUR 324.3 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 5.1 billion to EUR 884.9 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) fell by EUR 24.9 billion to EUR 118.1 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 11.2 billion to EUR 117.8 billion. On Wednesday, 30 May 2012, a main refinancing operation of EUR 37.9 billion matured and a new one of EUR 51.2 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 212 billion matured and new deposits in the same amount were collected. During the week a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 6.5 billion matured and a new one of EUR 8.3 billion was settled.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 0.7 billion (compared with EUR 2.1 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 785 billion (compared with EUR 760.1 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 280.8 billion. This increase was due to purchases under the second covered bond purchase programme, which more than offset the redemption of securities purchased under the first covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 1 June 2012 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 212.1 billion, while the values of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 56.4 billion and EUR 12.4 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 4 billion to EUR 94 billion.