Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 15 October 2010

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 15 October 2010 the increase of EUR 1 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the net 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) increased by EUR 0.2 billion to EUR 176.7 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions and US dollar liquidity-providing operations (see below).

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 securities other than those held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.2) increased by EUR 1.5 billion to EUR 310.5 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 1.9 billion to EUR 814 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 7.2 billion to EUR 86 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) increased by EUR 63 billion to EUR 419.2 billion. On Wednesday, 13 October 2010, a main refinancing operation of EUR 197 billion matured and a new one of EUR 186 billion was settled. On the same day a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 37.9 billion matured and a new one of EUR 52.2 billion was settled. Also on Wednesday, 13 October 2010, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 63.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in the same amount, with a maturity of one week.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 1.4 billion (compared with EUR 0.4 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 35.8 billion (compared with EUR 94.4 billion in the preceding week).

Since there were no new settled purchases under the Securities Markets Programme during the course of the week, the holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) remained unchanged at EUR 124.3 billion. As a result, in the week ending 15 October 2010 the value of the accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme and that of the portfolio held under the covered bond purchase programme totalled EUR 63.3 billion and EUR 61 billion respectively. Both 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 77 billion to EUR 228.7 billion.