Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 24 September 2010

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 24 September 2010 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) decreased by EUR 0.3 billion to EUR 191.3 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions and US dollar liquidity-providing transactions (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 securities other than those held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.2) increased by EUR 0.8 billion to EUR 306.5 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 2.2 billion to EUR 812 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 15.2 billion to EUR 104.6 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) decreased by EUR 19.6 billion to EUR 446.8 billion. On Wednesday, 22 September 2010, a main refinancing operation of EUR 151.6 billion matured and a new one of EUR 153.8 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 61 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 61.5 billion, with a maturity of one week.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 1.2 billion (compared with virtually nil in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 84.1 billion (compared with EUR 61.6 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 97 million to EUR 122.8 billion. This is due to settled purchases of EUR 134 million under the Securities Markets Programme, which more than offset maturing bonds of EUR 37 million acquired under the euro-denominated covered bonds purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 24 September 2010 the value of the portfolio held under the Securities Markets Programme and that of the portfolio held under the covered bonds purchase programme totalled EUR 61.7 billion and EUR 61.1 billion respectively.

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) decreased by EUR 31.3 billion to EUR 221 billion.