Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 28 May 2010

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 28 May 2010 the decrease of EUR 3 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) corresponded, first, to the sale of gold by one Eurosystem central bank (consistent with the Central Bank Gold Agreement that came in to effect on 27 September 2009) and, second, to the net sale of gold coin by another Eurosystem central bank.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) increased by EUR 4.3 billion to EUR 177.8 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions and US dollar liquidity-providing operations (see below).

US dollar liquidity-providing transactions

On 27 May 2010, a seven-day operation of USD 5.4 billion was settled. This operation was conducted by the Eurosystem in connection with the temporary reciprocal currency arrangements (swap line) that the European Central Bank (ECB) has established with the Federal Reserve System.

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities other than those held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.2) increased by EUR 0.9 billion to EUR 308.2 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 0.1 billion to EUR 804.7 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 19.4 billion to EUR 137.7 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 69.2 billion to EUR 472.5 billion. On Wednesday, 26 May 2010, a main refinancing operation of EUR 104.8 billion matured and a new one of EUR 106 billion was settled. On the same date, deposits in an amount of EUR 16.5 billion matured and new deposits with a maturity of one week were collected in an amount of EUR 26.5 billion. On Thursday, 27 May 2010, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 10.2 billion matured and a new one of EUR 12.2 billion was settled.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 0.3 billion (compared with virtually nil in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 316.2 billion (compared with EUR 253.5 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 10.2 billion to EUR 90.0 billion as a result of settled purchases of EUR 8.8 billion under the Securities Markets Programme and of EUR 1.4 billion under the euro-denominated covered bond purchase programme.

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 62.6 billion to EUR 183.7 billion.