Foreign-Owned Banking Assets

noodler

Does anybody know where to find out what percentage (or the actual figure) of a country's banking assets that are foreign owned?

Anonymous1987

The BIS should have what you're look for.

noodler

Anonymous1987 wrote: »

The BIS should have what you're look for.

I find those figures quite difficult to read.

I can see that foreign claims on Irish banks (incl IFSC) is over 500bn Euros (converted from dollars) but is it right to say that is the level of foreign ownership on assets in the Irish banking system?

If that is the foreign, then what is the domestic? I was hoping to steer clear of BIS if possible.

Slippers

noodler wrote: »

...the level of foreign ownership on assets in the Irish banking system?

If it's foreign owned doesn't that mean it's in the foreign banking system, not the Irish one?

Either the asset is on the balance sheet of an Irish bank or it is on the balance sheet of a foreign bank, no?

noodler

Slippers wrote: »

If it's foreign owned doesn't that mean it's in the foreign banking system, not the Irish one?

Either the asset is on the balance sheet of an Irish bank or it is on the balance sheet of a foreign bank, no?

Good question.

It confuses me a little.

I found an old IMF report on Portugal that had a list for the foreign liabilities and assets in the financial sector but the stat wasn't repeated in other reports for other countries.

I could just look at the exposure to the BIS figures but, if Irish banks are exposed to €500+bn abroad - is that equivalent to the number of foreign liabilities in the Irish Financial Sector?

Slippers

Foreign liabilities of the Portuguese financial sector sounds like how much Portuguese banks owe to foreigners. Foreign assets of the Portuguese financial sector sounds like how much foreigners owe to Portuguese banks, plus other things that the Portuguese banks own like shares in foreign companies or overseas property.

I think if Irish banks owe, say, €1bn to foreign banks we say that foreign banks have a €1bn exposure to Irish banks. Meaning they stand to lose up to €1bn if something goes wrong with Irish banks.

If the Irish financial sector owes €500bn to foreigners (i.e. foreigners are exposed to the Irish financial sector to the tune of €500bn) I think we can call that the foreign liabilities of the Irish financial sector. Foreign liabilities in the Irish financial sector sounds like debts of foreigners that are owned by the Irish financial sector (assets of the Irish financial sector).

SBWife

I would say that ownership and exposure are two different things. Bond holders don't have ownership of an asset only equity holders do. Irish banks are unfortunately at this point primarily owned by the Irish state but their bonds are owned by investors both foreign and domestic.

Slippers

SBWife wrote: »

Bond holders don't have ownership of an asset only equity holders do.

A bond is an asset for its owner and a liability for its issuer who has to payout on it.

SBWife

Slippers wrote: »

A bond is an asset for its owner and a liability for its issuer who has to payout on it.

Regardless bond holders do not have ownership of the banks or any other company. It's a basic fundamental of the financial structure of companies both banks and any other kinds.

Slippers

I never said that they owned a company but they do own assets and those assets are called bonds.