Securities issues by French residents 2020Q1

Published on 8 July 2020

Non-residents maintain their position on French long-term debt
  • In the first quarter of 2020, non-residents purchased €51 billion in resident debt securities, including 28 billion issued by general government and 14 billion issued by banks. On the contrary, they reduced their position on quoted shares issued by residents for an amount of €14 billion.
  • At the end of March 2020, the share of non-residents in the holdings of long-term debt securities rose to 56.7% against 56.4% at the end of 2019. This increase mainly concerned securities issued by banks, whose non-resident holdings reached 65.6%.
Graph 1 : Non-resident holdings of long-term debt (by resident issuer sector)
Graph 2 : Breakdown by holder sector of securities issued by residents (total debt and quoted shares) at end of March 2020
This document is prepared by the General Directorate of Statistics, Economics and International of the Banque de France (Balance of Payments Directorate). Issuance data is based on issuers' reporting, while holding statistics is calculated using custodian account statements. Further information on custodian activities : https://www.banque-france.fr/economie-et-statistiques/stats-info/detail/conservation-de-titres.html
"Long-term" stands for securities with an original maturity of more than one year.

Data reported in this document can be revised following quarterly and annual corrections and supplements.
Table 1 : SECURITIES ISSUES BY SECTOR AND SHARE OF NON-RESIDENTS IN THEIR SUBSCRIPTION
(Stocks and flows in billions of euros)
Gross stock Net issues Transactions flows by non-
residents
Net issues Transactions flows by non-
residents
March 2020 (end of month) Annual aggregate Q1 2020
TOTAL 5,895 136 146 87 36
DEBT SECURITIES (1) 4,107 133 146 87 51
Non-financial corporations 640 37 28 18 7
General government (4) 2,108 78 68 67 28
of which central government (4) 1,904 74 56 52 19
Banks (2) 1,170 11 41 0 14
of which guaranteed by restricted assets 286 7 6 4 2
of which short-term issues 206 -25 -7 -19 -14
Non-monetary institutions (3) 190 7 8 0 2
QUOTED SHARES (1) 1,788 3 0 1 -14
((1) The total outstanding amount of debt securities is expressed in nominal value. The total outstanding amount of equities is expressed in market value. Transaction flows are expressed in transaction value.
(2) Excluding internal financing operations of banking groups but including issues of financial companies (as defined in article L515-1, Code Monétaire et Financier).
(3) Non-monetary issuer institutions include insurance companies, securitization funds, debt funds, and investment firms.
(4) Total net and unconsolidated issuance (this measure cannot be compared with the overall outstanding amount of securities used for the calculation of national public debt as specified by the Maastricht criteria).
Table 2 : SECURITIES ISSUES BY FRENCH RESIDENTS IN THE EURO AREA
(nominal values, stocks and flows in billions of euros)
Gross stock (by euro area residents) French residents (as % of euro area gross stock) Cumulative gross issues over 4
quarters.
March 2020 (end of month)
Share of French residents in the
gross issues of euro area.
12 month moving aggregate flows
March 2020 (end of month) France Euro area March 2020 (end of month) December 2018 (end of month)
DEBT SECURITIES 17,908 23% 2,199 7,966 28% 29%
Non-financial corporations 1,439 44% 377 817 46% 48%
General government 8,448 25% 910 2,430 37% 38%
Banks 4,392 27% 773 2,803 28% 29%
of which short-term issues 546 38% 582 2,017 29% 32%
Non-monetary institutions 3,629 5% 140 1,917 7% 8%
Source and calculations : GENERAL DIRECTORATE OF STATISTICS, ECONOMICS AND INTERNATIONAL
More information on : methodology, time series, calendar
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STAT INFO - 1st quarter 2020
French securities issues and holdings
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Updated on 7 July 2020