Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 16 March 2012

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 16 March 2012 gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) remained unchanged.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) increased by EUR 1.0 billion to EUR 250.7 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 marketable securities other than those held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.2) decreased by EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 347.0 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 1.5 billion to EUR 869.1 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 4.6 billion to EUR 138.9 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 89.1 billion to EUR 172.6 billion. On Wednesday, 14 March 2012, a main refinancing operation of EUR 17.5 billion matured and a new one of EUR 42.2 billion was settled. On the same day, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 14.3 billion matured and a new one of EUR 9.8 billion was settled. Also on Wednesday, 14 March 2012, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 219.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 218 billion, with a maturity of one week.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 11.8 billion (compared with EUR 0.6 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 758.8 billion (compared with EUR 798.0 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 0.4 billion to EUR 283.4 billion. This increase was due to the purchases settled during the week under the second covered bond purchase programme, which more than offset the redemption of securities under the first covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 16 March 2012 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 217.8 billion, while those of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 57.0 billion and EUR 8.7 billion respectively. All three 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 34.2 billion to EUR 132.2 billion.