U.S. Department of the Treasury Preliminary Report on Foreign Holdings of U.S. Securities at End-June 2016




March 1, 2017


​ Washington, DC - - (February 28, 2017) - - Preliminary data from the June 2016 benchmark survey of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities were released today on the Treasury website at http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Pages/fpis.aspx. Final survey results, which will include additional detail as well as possible revisions to the preliminary data, will be reported on April 28, 2017. The survey was undertaken jointly by Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The next annual survey will cover holdings at the end of June 2017; preliminary data are expected to be released by February 28, 2018.

Complementary surveys measuring U.S. holdings of foreign securities are also carried out annually. Data from the most recent survey, reporting on securities held at year-end 2016, are currently being processed. Preliminary results are expected to be reported by August 31, 2017.

Overall Preliminary Results
The survey measured the value of foreign holdings of U.S. securities as of June 30, 2016, to be $17,141 billion, with $6,186 billion held in U.S. equities, $10,061 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities [1] (of which $1,184 billion are holdings of asset-backed securities (ABS) [2] and $8,877 billion are holdings of non-ABS securities), and $894 billion held in U.S. short-term debt securities. The previous survey, conducted as of June 30, 2015, measured the value of total foreign holdings of U.S. securities at $17,134 billion, with holdings of $6,655 billion in U.S. equities, $9,547 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities, and $932 billion in U.S. short-term debt securities (see Table A).


[1]. Long-term debt securities have an original term-to-maturity of over one year.
[2]. Asset-backed securities are backed by pools of assets, such as pools of residential home mortgages or credit card receivables, which give the security owners claims against the cash flows generated by the underlying assets. Unlike most other debt securities, these securities generally repay both principal and interest on a regular basis, reducing the principal outstanding with each payment cycle.





Table A. Foreign holdings of U.S. securities, by type of security, as of recent survey dates
(Billions of dollars)
Type of security June 30, 2015 June 30, 2016
Long-term securities 16,202 16,247
Equities 6,655 6,186
Long-term debt 9,547 10,061
Asset-backed 1,154 1,184
Other 8,393 8,877
Short-term debt securities 932 894
Total 17,134 17,141
Of which: Official 5,794 5,502





Table B. Foreign holdings of U.S. securities, by country and type of security,
for the major investing countries into the U.S., as of June 30, 2016
(Billions of dollars)
Total Equities Long-term debt Short
-term
ABS Other
1 Japan 1,960 428 196 1,274 62
2 China, mainland [i] 1,630 178 191 1,259 2
3 Cayman Islands 1,525 796 114 515 100
4 United Kingdom 1,428 741 25 622 39
5 Luxembourg 1,353 516 70 676 91
6 Canada 952 695 31 205 21
7 Ireland 931 238 75 505 112
8 Switzerland 743 351 20 339 32
9 Belgium 595 31 21 481 61
10 Taiwan 519 43 208 265 3
11 Germany 374 155 16 180 22
12 Netherlands 350 210 16 115 9
13 Singapore 322 137 10 162 14
14 Bermuda 307 86 46 148 27
15 Norway 306 201 1 104 1
16 Hong Kong 305 75 9 174 48
17 Brazil 259 5 * 240 13
18 Australia 237 171 5 53 8
19 Korea, South 236 75 36 115 10
20 France 217 120 7 77 13
21 Kuwait 189 131 5 41 11
22 Sweden 165 117 1 46 2
23 United Arab Emirates 161 87 * 63 11
24 British Virgin Islands 161 105 3 38 14
25 Saudi Arabia 152 35 10 103 5
Rest of world 1,767 458 69 1,076 164
Total 17,141 6,186 1,184 8,877 894
of which: Foreign official institutions 5,502 819 396 3,987 301

* Less than $500 million but more than zero.
[i]. Excludes Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, which are reported separately.

Information source: U.S. Department of the Treasury