The reporting population of Monetary Financial Institutions

The Monetary Financial Institutions (MFI) sector comprises the institutions which mainly form the money-issuing sector of the euro area. It includes resident credit institutions, as defined in Community law, and other resident financial institutions, the business of which is to receive deposits and/or close substitutes for deposits from entities other than MFIs and, for their own account (at least in economic terms), to grant credit and/or invest in securities.

The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) has established procedures for the continuous monitoring, checking and updating of the credit institutions which form the MFI sector, in order to ensure that the list of MFIs remains up to date, accurate, as homogenous as possible and sufficiently stable for reporting balance sheet statistics for monetary analysis purposes. The list of MFIs covers not only the euro area countries, but also those EU Member States not participating in Monetary Union. The list is regularly updated on the ECB´s Web site ( http://www.ecb.int) under the heading "MFIs and assets".

For the purposes of compiling the consolidated balance sheet of the MFI sector within the euro area, the reporting population consists of resident MFIs, including subsidiaries and branches of parent companies located outside the euro area. When reporting, MFIs consolidate the business of all their branches located within the same national territory. Furthermore, head offices are permitted to consolidate the business of any subsidiaries that are also MFIs located in the same national territory, but they must keep the business of credit institutions and other MFIs separate for the purposes of compiling the minimum reserve base. No consolidation is permitted across national boundaries for statistical returns. For statistical purposes, credit institutions located in offshore financial centres are treated as residents of the territories in which they are located.