Statistical Press Release - International banking statistics on a consolidated basis – 1st quarter of 2019
Today, Banco de Portugal publishes statistics in Table A.24 of the Statistical Bulletin and in BPstat on international consolidated banking statistics for the first quarter of 2019.
These statistics examine the international exposure of banks having their head office in Portugal from two different risk perspectives: (i) immediate — exposure to the countries of residence of agents that have directly signed an agreement with the bank and are immediately responsible before it; and (ii) ultimate — exposure to the countries of residence of the agents that guarantee compliance with the agreement instead of the entity that signed it, reflecting the fact that a third party ultimately guarantees compliance.
In the first quarter of 2019, foreign claims of Portuguese banks, on an immediate risk basis, stood at €80.6 billion, i.e. €4.3 billion more than in the last quarter of 2018.
Exposure to ultimate risk of Portuguese banks was €82.2 billion, corresponding to a €4.3 billion increase from the end of the previous year. Around 72% of these claims were located in the European Union.
The difference between the ultimate and immediate risk basis (€1.6 billion) corresponds to a net risk transfer between Portugal and the rest of the world. Given that exposure to ultimate risk of foreign claims is higher than exposure to immediate risk, this means that some bank claims on Portuguese entities are guaranteed by non-resident entities (Chart 1).
Exposure to ultimate risk vis-à-vis European Union Member States and the BRICS continued to exceed that to immediate risk (Chart 2).
Conversely, with regard to Portuguese-speaking African countries, Portuguese banks’ exposure was higher to immediate risk than to ultimate risk: part of their claims on entities residing in this group of countries was guaranteed by entities residing in other countries (Chart 2).
Next update: 9 Oct. 2019
