BIS to offer derivatives statistics for individual countries

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said today that it is expanding its statistics on banks' country risk exposures to include data on derivatives exposures to individual countries.

Banks will be required to report their exposure to individual countries for the new figures from the end of 2004. The figures will report positive market values on trades, thus avoiding the problems of double counting. But the new statistics will not break down the derivatives volumes to the asset level.

The BIS currently publishes data on the OTC derivatives markets in its triennial and half-yearly surveys, but has not yet published data on banks' derivatives exposure to individual countries.

The BIS is also looking to publish breakdowns of guarantees and credit commitments of individual countries, plus sectoral breakdowns of total on-balance sheet claims.