Statistical Press Release – International banking statistics on a consolidated basis – 2nd quarter of 2020
Today, Banco de Portugal publishes statistics in Table A.24 of the Statistical Bulletin and in BPstat on international consolidated banking statistics for the second quarter of 2020.
These statistics examine the international exposure of banks having their head office in Portugal from two different counterparty basis : (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.
At the end of the second quarter of 2020, the immediate exposure of claims of Portuguese banks stood at €87.9 billion, leading to an increase of €3.5 billion compared to the end of the first quarter of the year.
The ultimate exposure of Portuguese banks was €88.7 billion, corresponding to a €3.4 billion increase from the first quarter of 2020. Around 72% of these claims were located in the European Union, which represents an increase of €3.7 billion (1 percentage points (pp)), when compared to the last quarter.
The difference between the ultimate and immediate exposure (€0.8 billion) corresponds to a net risk transfer between Portugal and the rest of the world. Given that the ultimate exposure of foreign claims is higher than their immediate exposure, this means that some bank claims on Portuguese entities are guaranteed by non-resident entities (Chart 1).
The ultimate exposure vis-à-vis European Union Member States and the BRICS continued to exceed the immediate exposure (Chart 2).
Conversely, with regard to Portuguese-speaking African countries, the immediate exposure of Portuguese banks was higher than their ultimate exposure: part of their claims on entities residing in this group of countries was guaranteed by entities residing in other countries (Chart 2).
Next update: 13 Jan. 2021
