Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 15 March 2013

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 15 March 2013 the increase of EUR 1 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the purchase 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 0.5 billion to EUR 217.8 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 1.7 billion to EUR 336.7 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 0.1 billion to EUR 882.8 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 1.4 billion to EUR 81.5 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 9.8 billion to EUR 581.5 billion. On Wednesday, 13 March 2013, a main refinancing operation of EUR 129.8 billion matured and a new one of EUR 127.3 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 205.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in the same amount, with a maturity of one week.

During the week, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 7.8 billion matured and a new one of EUR 4.2 billion was settled, while EUR 5 billion of longer-term refinancing operations was repaid before maturity.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) remained virtually unchanged at close to zero, while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 132.6 billion (compared with EUR 134.1 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) decreased by EUR 0.3 billion to EUR 269.2 billion. This decrease was due to the redemption of securities acquired under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes. Therefore, in the week ending 15 March 2013, the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 205.3 billion, while the value of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 47.7 billion and EUR 16.2 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 11.7 billion to EUR 366.5 billion.