Financial centers. Plan

SHARES OF SELECTED INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CENTER BANKS IN DEPOSIT BANKS’ TOTAL FOREIGN ASSETS
(In percent)

Source: International Monetary Fund, International Financial Statistics (IFS) Yearbook, Vol. 39 (Washington, 1986).Note: Coverage of the series may change over the period.
¹Including trustee accounts channeled through Swiss banks.
²Including international banking facilities (IBFs).
³The “major offshore banking centers,” according to IFS definition, are as follows: Hong Kong, Singapore, Bahrain, The Bahamas the Cayman Islands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Panama.
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In Table 61, the phenomenal growth of the foreign assets of banks located in each of the major OFCs is shown. This table also discriminates to the extent possible between the assets held by banks carrying out a general banking business and institutions specially organized to carry out offshore business, though the distinction is obviously not always meaningful.
Table 61
FOREIGN ASSETS OF BANKS IN MAJOR OFFSHORE BANKING CENTERS, SELECTED YEARS
(In billions of U.S. dollars)

Source: International Monetary Fund, International Financial Statistics Yearbook, Vol. 39 (Washington, 1986).Note: Coverage of the series may change over the period.
¹All deposit-taking institutions can engage in offshore banking. No separate category is restricted.
²Break occurred in series in 1978.
³Includes assets of nonmonetary financial institutions.
⁴No detail available to distinguish between assets of Class A licensed banks, which can engage in both domestic and foreign operations, and Class B licensed banks, which can engage only in offshore operations.
⁵Estimate based on partial data.
⁶Less than $50 million.
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b. Relation to Statistical Discrepancy
Several kinds of statistical problems result from the operations of international financial centers, and the problems are likely to grow with the passage of time as the business of international finance becomes increasingly sophisticated. One problem is that some MOB centers do not include in their balance of payments accounts the transactions of certain intermediaries that they regard as essentially nonresident. This aspect is described in the section on MOB centers (Subsection 2.b.vi) in Chapter V and is also discussed in Chapter I, which indicates the adjustments to the international investment accounts that are required in order to bring these economies into line with the reporting done by the rest of the world. About $6 billion was missing from reported income debits and credits in 1983. This amount would be larger now, and it does not indicate how much of an adjustment might be necessary for non-investment income account items such as insurance premiums, fees charged by financial institutions, or revenues of registered ships not reported elsewhere. Table 62 shows for individual MOB centers the extent of the revisions required for bank-related portfolio investment income.
Table 62