The external position of banks shows the assets and liabilities of the banks in Germany and their foreign branches and subsidiaries vis-à-vis non-residents.

Dissemination practice

The external position of Banks is compiled by the Deutsche Bundesbank on a monthly basis and is published approximately four to eight weeks after the end of the reporting month.

The external position of Banks is published in the time series database and in the Statistical Series Banking Statistics.

Methodological notes

In the external position of banks, the banks’ external assets and liabilities, which are already mentioned in the monthly balance sheet statistics, are grouped by country, currency, sector and maturity. A separate external position is compiled for the banks’ domestic operations as well as for domestic institutions’ foreign branches and foreign subsidiaries. These data serve the purpose of observing German banks’ activities worldwide and are an important source of input when calculating both monetary and balance of payment statistics aggregates.

With regard to definition and valuation of the collected positions, internationally agreed concepts such as the currently valid 6th edition of the International Monetary Fund’s Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6), the Regulations on national accounts agreed at UN level (SNA2008) as well as the "European System of Accounts" (ESVG 2010), which is binding for all members of the European Union, are taken into account.