Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 12 November 2010

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 12 November 2010 the decrease of EUR 3 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the sale of gold by one Eurosystem central bank (consistent with the Central Bank Gold Agreement that came into effect on 27 September 2009).

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) decreased by EUR 0.3 billion to EUR 176.9 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 marketable securities other than those held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.2) increased by EUR 1 billion to EUR 314.6 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 1.8 billion to EUR 814.5 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 2.8 billion to EUR 78.2 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 47.9 billion to EUR 431.5 billion. On Wednesday, 10 November 2010, a main refinancing operation of EUR 178.4 billion matured and a new one of EUR 175 billion was settled. On the same day, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 52.2 billion matured and a new one of EUR 63.6 billion was settled. On Thursday, 11 November 2010, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 35.7 billion matured. On Wednesday, 10 November 2010, a liquidity-providing fine-tuning operation of EUR 12.6 billion, with a maturity of 6 days, was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 63.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 64 billion, with a maturity of one week.

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 126.1 billion as a result of settled purchases under the Securities Markets Programme. Therefore, in the week ending 12 November 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 65.1 billion and EUR 61 billion respectively. Both portfolios are accounted for on a held-to-maturity basis.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 2.1 billion (compared with EUR 0.1 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 20.2 billion (compared with EUR 81.7 billion in the preceding week).

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 55.1 billion to EUR 245.1 billion.