Enhancements to the BIS International Banking Statistics and Highlights of the Results of the Statistics in Japan

With the lessons learned from the international financial crisis of 2008, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and central banks worldwide have been working on enhancements to the BIS international banking statistics (IBS) which comprehensively quantify cross-border capital and credit flows through the banking sector. The purpose of the enhancements is to help capture the build-up of risks in the financial system such as credit exposures to the shadow banks. The Bank of Japan (BOJ), in line with its cooperation to enhance the IBS, has made some improvements to the results of the statistics in Japan. These enhanced statistics are independently published by the BOJ and include further breakdown of the counterparty sector and calculation of aggregated figures for Japanese banks. By virtue of these enhancements, analyses of these newly available data clarify that, for example, external claims have been increasing mainly due to investments in U.S. securities and in funds registered in offshore centers by such entities as Japanese banks and institutional investors subjected to persistently low interest rates in Japan.