Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 31 January 2014

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 31 January 2014 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) remained virtually unchanged at EUR 207.3 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 0.3 billion to EUR 356.1 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 2.5 billion to EUR 932.5 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 0.8 billion to EUR 92.9 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) fell by EUR 12.6 billion to EUR 484.5 billion. On Wednesday, 29 January 2014, a main refinancing operation of EUR 116.3 billion matured and a new one of EUR 115.6 billion, with a maturity of one week, was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 152.1 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 151.2 billion, with a maturity of one week.

During the week, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 1.9 billion matured and a new one of EUR 5 billion was settled, while EUR 3.7 billion of longer-term refinancing operations was repaid before maturity.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 0.3 billion (compared with EUR 0.2 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 56.1 billion (compared with EUR 44 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) decreased by EUR 2.2 billion to EUR 231.3 billion. This decrease was due to the redemption of securities acquired under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes and the Securities Markets Programme. Therefore, in the week ending 31 January 2014 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 175.7 billion, while the values of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 40.4 billion and EUR 15.2 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) decreased by EUR 12.2 billion to EUR 215.7 billion.