Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 31 August 2012

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 31 August 2012, the decrease of EUR 1 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the sale of gold coin by one Eurosystem central bank.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) decreased by EUR 2.1 billion to EUR 241.9 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 0.5 billion to EUR 320.3 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) rose by EUR 0.6 billion to EUR 896.4 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 35.9 billion to EUR 88.3 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 12.6 billion to EUR 652.3 billion. On Wednesday, 29 August 2012, a main refinancing operation of EUR 131.2 billion matured and a new one of EUR 131.5 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 211.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in the amount of EUR 209 billion, with a maturity of one week. On Thursday, 30 August 2012, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 8.3 billion matured and a new one of EUR 9.7 billion was settled.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 0.6 billion (compared with EUR 0.7 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 346 billion (compared with EUR 329.3 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 279 billion. This increase was due to the purchases of securities under the second covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 31 August 2012, the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 208.8 billion, while the values of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 54.9 billion and EUR 15.3 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 15.5 billion to EUR 541 billion.