I. Introduction
2.1 This chapter starts by defining institutional units (as holders and issuers of financial assets) and classifying them into sectors following the overarching macroeconomic statistics principles in the 2008 System of National Accounts (2008 SNA). Subsequently, the concept of residence is used to establish the economic boundary for compiling FSIs. It determines the foreign/domestic breakdown of assets and liabilities of financial corporations (FCs). Next, resident institutional units are classi-fed into institutional sectors and subsectors. This allows the presentation of FCs’ claims on and liabilities to the different sectors of the domestic economy. Finally, the chapter identifies and defines the main types of players and markets that typically constitute a financial system.
II. Institutional Units
2.2 An institutional unit is an economic entity capable, in its own right, of decision-making autonomy in owning assets, incurring liabilities and engaging in economic activities and in transactions with other entities.
2.3 Institutional units, as owners of financial assets and issuers of liabilities, constitute the structural building blocks for macroeconomic statistical frameworks. Two main types of units may qualify as institutional units: persons or groups of persons in the form of households, and legal or social entities.
Households
2.4 A household is a group of persons who share the same living accommodation, pool some, or all, of their income and wealth and consume certain types of goods and services collectively, mainly housing and food. A household may consist of an individual or more than one person.
Legal or Social Entities
2.5 The second type of institutional unit is a legal or social entity that engages in economic activities and transactions in its own right. A legal or social entity is one whose existence is recognized by law or society independently of the persons, or other entities, that may own or control it. Such units are responsible and accountable for the economic decisions or actions they take, although their autonomy may be constrained to some extent by other institutional units.
2.6 Tree categories of legal or social entities constituting institutional units can be identified: (1) corporations; (2) nonprofit institutions (NPIs); and (3) government units. The status of an institutional unit cannot always be inferred from its name. It is necessary to examine its economic objectives, functions, and behavior. (For detail see Monetary and Financial Statistics Manual and Compilation Guide [MFSMCG] paragraphs 3.3–3.50).
III. Residence
2.7 The delineation between resident and nonresident units determines which units are part of the reporting population and facilitates the estimation of the external position of the FCs sector. The key concepts for defining the residence of an institutional unit are economic territory and center of predominant economic interest.1 Residence is not based on nationality of the account holder, nor on the currency of denomination of accounts.
Economic Territory
2.8 An economic territory can be any geographic area or jurisdiction for which statistics are required. The most commonly used concept of economic territory is the area under the effective economic control of a single government. It includes special zones (e.g., free trade zones and offshore financial centers).2 The connection of entities to an economic territory is determined from aspects such as physical presence and being subject to the jurisdiction of the government of the territory. Economic territory may be larger or smaller than the physical or political borders of a country, for example, a currency or economic union, or part of a country.3
2.9 Economic territory has the dimensions of physical location, as well as legal jurisdiction, so that corporations created under the law are part of that economy. The concepts of economic territory and residence are designed to ensure that each institutional unit is a resident in one economic territory, determined by its center of predominant economic interest.
Residence of Institutional Units
2.10 The residence of each institutional unit is the economic territory with which it has the strongest connection, expressed as its center of predominant economic interest.
2.11 An institutional unit has a center of predominant economic interest in an economic territory when there exists, within the economic territory, some location, dwelling, place of production, or other premises on which or from which the unit engages and intends to continue engaging, either indefinitely or over a finite, but long, period of time, in economic activities and transactions on a significant scale. Actual or intended location for one year or more is used as an operational definition. Although the choice of a specific time period is somewhat arbitrary, it is adopted in BPM6 (see paragraph 4.114) to avoid uncertainty and facilitate international consistency.
Resident units
2.12 An institutional unit is considered a resident if it has already engaged in economic activities and transactions on a significant scale in the territory for one year or more, or if it intends to do so.
2.13 A household is a resident in the economic territory in which the household members maintain or intend to maintain a dwelling or succession of dwellings treated and used by members of the household as their principal dwelling. The residence of individual persons is determined by that of the household of which they form part and not by their place of work. All members of the same household have the same residence as the household itself, even though they may cross borders to work or otherwise spend periods of time abroad.
2.14 Corporations and NPIs normally may be expected to have a center of predominant economic interest in the economy in which they are legally constituted and registered. Corporations may be resident in economies different from their shareholders. Subsidiaries may be resident in different economies from their parent corporations. As a general principle, an enterprise is resident in an economic territory when it is engaged in a significant amount of production of goods or services from a location in the territory. They must maintain at least one production establishment in the territory and plan to operate it indefinitely or over a long period of time (usually one year or more). Additional factors to consider are the maintenance of a set of accounts covering local productive activities and being subject to the income tax system in the economy in which it is located. Unincorporated enterprises that are not quasi-corporations4 are not separate institutional units from their owners and, therefore, have the same residence as their owners. When a nonresident unit has substantial operations over a significant period in an economic territory, but no separate legal entity for those operations, a branch may be identified as an institutional unit.
2.15 Apart from these general definitions, there are special cases where individuals or institutional units should be considered residents of the territory, and their accounts incorporated in the domestic assets and liabilities of the FCs.5
Nonresident units
2.16 Institutional units that have their center of predominant economic interest outside the economic territory are nonresidents. Their accounts are recorded as part of foreign assets or foreign liabilities of the resident FCs, irrespective of the nationality of the account holder and of the currency of denomination of the accounts.6
IV. Institutional Sectors
Definition
2.17 Classifying institutional units into institutional sectors is key in all macroeconomic statistical frameworks. Sectoring of institutional units involves grouping together institutional units with similar economic objectives, functions, and behavior into institutional sectors. In the FSIs, it is necessary to delineate the FCs sector and its subsectors, to identify their financial health and soundness.
2.18 Resident institutional units are grouped into mutually exclusive sectors. For FSI compilation purposes, the key sectors comprise: (1) financial corporations (FCs); (2) nonfinancial corporations (NFCs); (3) general government; (4) households; and (5) nonprofit institutions serving households (NPISHs).7 All resident institutional units are allocated to only one institutional sector. A unit engaged in activities belonging to more than one sector and not having a separate set of accounts for each activity must be classified entirely in a single sector, based on the most prominent economic activity in which it engages.
2.19 Financial corporations include deposit takers (DTs), and other financial corporations (OFCs);8 and OFCs are split into additional subsectors as discussed in the next section.
Financial Corporations
2.20 The FCs sector consists of all resident corporations, including quasi-corporations, that are principally engaged in providing financial services to other institutional units. Units providing financial services do not usually produce other goods and services and financial services are not provided as secondary production.
2.21 FCs are distinguished from nonfinancial corporations at the first level of sectoring, because FCs are engaged principally in providing financial services, including financial intermediation, which are inherently different from other types of productive activity.
Nonfinancial Corporations
2.22 The nonfinancial corporations (NFCs) sector encompasses corporations and quasi-corporations whose principal activity is the production of market goods or nonfinancial services.
2.23 The NFCs sector is composed of the following resident institutional units: (1) all resident nonfinancial corporations, regardless of the residence of their shareholders; (2) the branches of nonresident enterprises that are engaged in nonfinancial production in the economic territory on a long-term basis; and (3) all resident NPIs that are market producers of goods or nonfinancial services.
General Government
2.24 Government units are unique kinds of legal entities established by political process that have legislative, judicial, or executive authority over other institutional units within a given area. The principal functions of government units are to assume responsibility for the provision of goods and services to the community or individual households primarily on a nonmarket basis, redistribute income and wealth by means of transfers, engage in nonmarket production, and finance their activities out of taxation or other compulsory transfers.
2.25 The general government sector consists of resident institutional units that fulfill the functions of government as their primary activity. The general government sector comprises all government units of central, state, provincial, regional and local government, and social security funds, as well as all resident nonmarket NPIs controlled by government units.9
2.26 Resident public corporations include entities in the deposit-taking and other sectors that are subject to control by government units, defined as the ability to determine general corporate policy by choosing directors, if necessary.10
V. Financial Sector
Definition
2.27 The financial sector consists of institutional units, financial instruments and markets, and government regulation, interacting to facilitate intermediation between providers and users of funds.
2.28 Financial markets facilitate the transfer of productive resource between entities or sectors with surplus resources to those in need of resource, and in doing so support the productive potential and development of the economy. Markets provide a setting within which financial claims can be traded under established rules of conduct, and can facilitate the management of credit, market and, other risks. They also play an important role in identifying market prices (“price discovery”).
2.29 Although many definitions in the Guide draw from the MFSMCG, the definition of the financial sector is not equivalent across the two frameworks. Also the definition of DTs in the Guide could deviate from their regulatory definitions in some countries.
Central Bank
2.30 The central bank is the national financial institution exercising control over key aspects of the financial sector. Its functions generally include (1) issuing currency, (2) conducting monetary policy, including by regulating money supply and credit, (3) managing international reserves, (4) providing credit to deposit-taking corporations, and (5) acting as banker to government, by holding central government deposits and providing credit in the form of overdrafts, advances, and purchases of securities. FSIs are not computed for the central bank.
Deposit Takers
2.31 Deposit takers have financial intermediation as their principal activity. To this end, they obtain funds through the acceptance of deposits or other financial instruments such as short-term certificates of deposits,11 bills, bonds, other debt securities, or other financial instruments. DTs may also be subject to license and regulatory requirements.
2.32 Within a financial system, the role of deposit takers (DTs) is central. They often provide a location for the placement and borrowing of funds and, as such, are a source of liquid assets and funds to the rest of the economy. They are important for the transmission of monetary policy. They also provide payments services that are relied upon by all other entities for the conduct of their business. Thus, failures of deposit takers can have a significant impact on the activities of all other financial and nonfinancial entities and on the confidence in, and the functioning of, the finan-cial system. This makes the analysis of the health and soundness of deposit takers central to any assessment of financial system stability.
2.33 In the Guide, DTs comprise all deposit-taking institutions, regardless of whether liabilities issued are included in the national definition of broad money. On the other hand, in the MFSMCG, other depository corporations (ODCs) are defined as financial corporations that issue liabilities in the form of deposits included in broad money. For deposits that are not included in broad money, FCs are defined as OFCs. One notable exception is of MMF shares and units which are highly liquid and close substitutes for transferable and other deposits. In the MFSMCG, MMF shares and units are thus included in broad money and all MMFs as defined in paragraph 2.51 are classified as ODCs. By contrast, MMFs are defined as OFCs in the Guide because the nature of their business might differ from that of DTs, and because legal and regulatory systems and prudential requirements can differ.
2.34 DTs, as defined in the Guide, in some jurisdictions may cover institutions outside of the banking system, defined de facto or de jure. For instance, in certain countries, the definition of DTs may cover institutions that do not have a “banking license” but that can still accept deposits. These DTs often fall outside the scope of banking supervision and may be subject to a prudential regime that varies from that applied to banks.
2.35 For compiling FSIs, dealing with data for DTs not regulated as banks (non-bank DTs) adds complexity, and may prove costly if regulatory-based information is not available. The Guide recommends two options for dealing with non-bank DTs: (i) report annually information on their number, asset size, and control in the IMF report form on the institutional coverage of FSIs; or (ii) compile a subset of FSIs for these institutions and disseminate this information separately. The latter option is recommended when non-bank DTs comprise a significant part of the financial sector in terms of size or number of customers served.
Commercial banks
2.36 A commercial bank is the most common designation of a deposit-taking corporation but use of the term “bank” in the name of an entity does not imply it is actually a commercial bank—it should be classified as a bank based on the types of activities undertaken and not based on the name alone. The range of activities in which a commercial bank can participate varies widely among countries, depending on national banking regulations and practices, and the sophistication of a country’s financial system. The most common services provided by commercial banks are accepting deposits and granting loans or other forms of finance to corporations and households. In many countries, they are required to hold reserves at the central bank, often determined as a certain proportion of their deposit liabilities.
Other deposit-taking corporations
2.37 Corporations and quasi-corporations that may be classified as other deposit-taking corporations include (1) merchant banks; (2) savings and loan associations, building societies, and mortgage banks; (3) credit unions, and credit cooperatives; (4) municipal credit institutions; (5) rural banks and agricultural banks; and (6) electronic money institutions, among others.12
Special cases
Offshore banks
2.38 “Offshore banks” is a term for deposit-taking corporations established in jurisdictions that provide legal and fiscal advantages, such as low or no taxation and less stringent regulations in terms of reserve requirements or foreign exchange restrictions. They engage in various types of financial transactions, including deposit taking and the extension of loans typically denominated in currencies other than the currency of the economy in which they are located. They may be restricted from accepting deposits from residents of the economy in which they are located.
2.39 Offshore banks engaged in trade and finance are residents of the economies in which they are located. The Guide recommends that offshore banks are included in the DTs if they take deposits. If they do not take deposits, they should be classified as OFCs.
Banks in distress
2.40 Under financial difficulties, some deposit-taking corporations may operate under the control of receivers or regulators and others may have been closed. The deposit-taking corporations are deemed to continue to exist until a formal bankruptcy or reorganization has taken place. Until such corporations are liquidated or reorganized, their deposits may be frozen.
2.41 The deposit-taking corporations in liquidation or reorganization may retain claims on various sectors of the economy, which may be transferred to a restructuring agency or may be acquired by other depository corporations. Reorganization, sale, or merger of such depository corporations may result in all or part of the funds eventually becoming available to depositors and possibly other creditors.
2.42 The Guide recommends that banks whose deposits liabilities are frozen during liquidation or reorganization continue to be included in the DTs subsector as long as they own financial assets and liabilities. It is recognized that in practice, it is usually difficult to get data on the accounts of banks in liquidation reported on a regular basis. Moreover, reported values of assets and liabilities of banks in liquidation may not reflect true market value of those instruments.
2.43 If DTs in distress constitute a significant share of the domestic financial system, the authorities may consider compiling data both including and excluding these institutions, particularly if the liquidation process is very lengthy.13
Other Financial Corporations
2.44 In recent years, the OFCs sector has increased its importance within the financial system, engaging in a wide range of financial intermediary, or auxiliary, activities outside the banking system. These activities include so-called “shadow banking,” which can be broadly defined as credit intermediation involving entities and activities outside the regulated banking system. Total assets of all OFCs, plus selected financial statement and memorandum series for money market funds, insurance corporations and pension funds, are used in the compilation of FSIs.
Money Market Funds
2.45 Money market funds (MMFs) are collective investment schemes that raise funds by issuing shares or units to the public. The proceeds are invested primarily in money market instruments, MMF shares or units, bank deposits, tradable debt instruments with a residual maturity of not more than one year, and instruments that pursue a rate of return that approaches the interest rates of money market instruments. For an investment fund to be recognized as an MMF, there needs to be (1) a certain degree of capital certainty (reliable store of value); and (2) the possibility to withdraw funds immediately or on short notice. If the conditions above are not met, the institution is not classified as an MMF but as a non-MMF investment fund.
Non-MMF Investment Funds
2.46 Non-MMF investment funds are collective investment schemes that raise funds by issuing shares or units to the public excluding MMFs. The proceeds are invested predominantly in long-term financial assets, such as equity shares, bonds, and mortgage loans, and nonfinancial assets, such as real estate. Non-MMF investment funds may also invest a small percentage of their total assets in highly liquid short-term financial instruments to ensure that requests to redeem shares or units are met without delay. They can be run under several denominations, such as mutual funds, investment pools, investment trusts, unit trusts, and institutions, for collective investment.
Insurance Corporations
2.47 Insurance corporations provide financial benefits to policyholders through risk-sharing and risk-transfer contracts. Main types of insurance include life or long-term insurance; non-life or property and casualty, or general insurance; and reinsurance. Also included in this subsector are captive insurance companies, which serve only their owners; deposit insurers; issuers of deposit guarantees; and other issuers of standardized guarantees that are separate institutional units and function like insurers by constituting reserves and charging premiums proportional to the cost of the service provided. Insurance corporations may also operate pension plans, as indicated in the next subsection.
2.48 Life insurance corporations invest premiums to build up portfolios of financial assets to be used to meet future claims of policy holders, spreading risks of the policy holders over time. Life insurance corporations offer products that are purely insurance as well as products with a savings component. “Term insurance” provides a guaranteed death benefit for a specified time period. Non-unit linked insurance (or traditional insurance) is a contract that provides life insurance with a fixed payment in case of death or at maturity. Unit-linked insurance is an insurance contract, which provides a combination of (traditional) life insurance and an investment component with the investment risk being entirely borne by the policy-holder. Returns on the investment component depend on market performance.
2.49 Non-life insurance corporations provide financial benefits to policy holders in the event of accidents, fire, property loss, health-related expenses, and so on, spreading current risk or expenses among clients. Some individual insurance corporations sell both life and non-life insurance, in which case they are called composite insurance companies.
2.50 Reinsurance corporations insure the insurance policies written by other insurance corporations in exchange for insurance premiums. Insurance corporations purchase reinsurance to offset policy risk, thereby capping the net loss incurred if the insured event occurs.
Pension Funds
2.51 The pension funds subsector consists of autonomous pension funds that are separate funds (i.e., separate institutional units) established for purposes of providing incomes on retirement for spe-cific groups of employees which are organized, and directed, by private or public employers or jointly by the employers and their employees.14 Pension schemes may be administered by a separately constituted pension fund, or a fund that is operated by the employer. Governments also sometimes organize pension schemes for their employees, which are independent of the social security system.
2.52 Pension schemes may be funded or unfunded. Funded pension schemes have separate pools of financial assets, or reserves, assigned for the payment of benefits. Unfunded pension schemes have no separated pool of assets and are not a separate institutional unit from the administrator of the scheme. They are administered by employers or the government, who do not create specific pension-fund reserves for the payment of benefits.
2.53 There are three types of funded pension schemes: (1) those operated by FCs, typically insurance or asset-management corporations; (2) those operated as autonomous pension funds; and (3) those operated as non-autonomous pension funds. If funded, all three types of pension funds will hold reserves dedicated to the payment of pensions and other retirement benefits to the beneficiaries.
2.54 Depending on how the benefits are determined, pension plans may operate as defined benefit plans or defined contribution plans. Under a defined benefit plan, the future retirement benefits are determined by specific factors such as the participants’ length of service and salaries and age at retirement. Under a defined contribution plan, the benefits to be received by a participant are based on contributions to the pension fund and the investment performance of the fund. Hybrid schemes are a combination of a defined benefit plan and a defined contribution plan, where the risk of the scheme to provide an adequate income in retirement is shared by the employer and the employee.
Other Financial Intermediaries
2.55 Other financial intermediaries, except insurance corporations and pension funds, consist of FCs that are engaged in providing financial services by incurring liabilities, in forms other than currency and deposits, for the purpose of acquiring on their own account financial assets, by engaging in financial transactions on the market. It is a feature of a financial intermediary that transactions on both sides of the balance sheet are carried out in open markets.
2.56 FCs in the other financial intermediaries sub-sector generally raise funds on wholesale financial markets or through the sale of securities, and usually not in the form of deposits, and use the funds to extend loans and acquire other financial assets. The intermediaries often specialize in lending to borrowers in particular sectors of the economy and for specialized financial arrangements. Units classified as other financial intermediaries include finance companies, financial leasing companies, investment banks, venture capital and private equity firms, underwriters and dealers, central clearing counterparties (CCPs), financial derivative intermediaries, securitization vehicles, specialized financial intermediaries, asset management companies (AMCs), and bank restructuring agencies.15
Financial Auxiliaries
2.57 Financial auxiliaries are principally engaged in facilitating transactions in financial assets and liabilities by providing the regulatory context for these transactions but in circumstances that do not involve the auxiliary taking ownership of the financial assets and liabilities being transacted. Financial auxiliaries do not act as intermediaries.
2.58 Some of the most common types of financial auxiliaries include public exchanges, securities markets, clearing houses, brokers, agents, foreign exchange companies (or bureau de change), insurance and pension funds auxiliaries (e.g., agents, adjusters, and actuarial services), financial derivative corporations, representative offices of foreign banks, corporations primarily involved in the operation of electronic payment mechanisms, third-party payment processors (e.g., online payment corporations, and financial payment corporations including money-transfer or remittance services), supervisory agencies, regulatory bodies, managers of pension funds and of mutual funds, head offices of FCs, solicitor nominee companies, and peer-to-peer lending companies.16
Captive Financial Institutions and Money Lenders
2.59 Captive financial institutions and money lenders consist of institutional units providing finan-cial services other than insurance where most of either their assets or liabilities are not transacted on open financial markets but arise from transactions with related parties. This category includes entities transacting within only a limited group of units or subsidiaries of the same holding corporation, or entities that extend loans from own funds provided by only one sponsor.17
2.60 Captive financial institutions are corporate subsidiaries that act as financial agents for their parent corporations, raising funds to lend to their parent corporations or for purchase of parent corporations’ accounts receivables. Captive insurance companies and pension funds that serve their owners are not included in this subsector but classified as insurance corporations and pension funds. Captive financial institutions are sometimes operated by deposit-taking corporations for engaging in specialized activities or for regulatory reasons. If they do not qualify to be treated as units separate from their parent corporations they are included within the balance sheets of the parent corporations unless they are resident in an economy different from that where the parent is resident. They are classified in the OFC subsector if they qualify to be treated as separate institutional units.
2.61 Holding companies are units that hold the assets of a group of subsidiary corporations as their principal activity, and do not provide any other service to the enterprises in which the equity is held (i.e., they do not administer or manage other units). Holding companies are always allocated to the FCs sector and treated as captive financial institutions, even if all the subsidiary corporations are nonfinancial corporations.
VI. Financial Markets
2.62 A financial market can be defined as a market in which entities can trade financial claims under some established rules of conduct. There are various types of financial markets depending on the nature of the claims being traded. The two main categories include the money and capital markets (primary and secondary). Other financial markets include derivatives, commodities and the foreign exchange market.
2.63 The money market involves short-term lending and borrowing of funds. It provides short-term liquidity to governments and financial and nonfinancial corporations. Instruments traded in a money market have a short maturity and include treasury bills, central bank bills, certificates of deposit, bankers’ acceptances, and commercial paper. They also include borrowing through repurchase agreements. An active money market allows entities to manage their liquidity in an efficient manner, by facilitating investment of excess holdings of cash in interest-bearing assets, which can be drawn upon when needed, and by providing a source of funds for those short of liquidity, or who wish to finance short-term positions in other markets.
2.64 One specific money market is the interbank market, where banks lend to each other their excess liquidity, often overnight and usually on an unsecured basis. An efficient interbank market facilitates banks’ liquidity management and contributes to monetary policy design.
2.65 Capital markets are the markets where financial instruments such as bonds and shares are issued to secure long term financing, and where they are traded. Capital markets include bond markets and equity markets. The bond market is the market in longer-term debt instruments issued by governments, and financial and nonfinancial corporations. The bond market allows a borrower to obtain long-term funds through the issuance of debt securities, while providing investors with an opportunity to purchase and sell these securities. For borrowers, such a market provides an alternative to bank lending as a form of long-term finance. An active bond market also allows credit risks to be spread over a wide range of investors, reducing the potential for credit risk concentration and providing borrowers with up-to-date information on the market views of their credit-worthiness. Bonds also provide an investment opportunity for those investors that have a long-term investment horizon, such as pension funds with long-term liabilities.
2.66 The equity market is where equity securities are traded. An active equity market is an important source of capital to the issuer and allows the investor to benefit from the future growth of the business through dividend payments and/or an increase in the value of the equity. Turnover serves as an indicator of liquidity in equity markets.
2.67 Financial derivatives markets are used to trade financial risks such as those arising from foreign exchange and interest rates, to entities more able or willing to bear them. Credit risk can also be traded, through credit derivatives. Derivatives comprise forwards, options, swaps, and sometimes combinations of these three elements, with the value of the derivative instrument depending mainly on the price of the underlying item—the reference price. These markets can broaden financial market activity by providing a way to transfer financial risk that otherwise would have deterred an investor from purchasing the security. Since financial derivatives transfer risk, financial stability can be threatened by an accumulation of risk exposures by derivatives counterparties, particular if the risks have not been fully understood or properly priced.
2.68 In financial markets, liquidity is important, because it allows investors to manage their portfolios and risks more efficiently, which tends to reduce the borrowing cost. There are several dimensions to market liquidity, including tightness, depth, immediacy, and resilience. Tightness is a market’s ability to match supply and demand efficiently and can be measured by the bid-ask spread. Market depth relates to the ability of a market to absorb large trade volumes without a significant impact on prices and can be approximated by the amounts traded over a period of time (turnover) and quote sizes. Immediacy is the speed with which orders can be executed and settled, and resilience is the speed with which price fluctuations arising from imbalances in trades are dissipated.
The concept and coverage of residence in the Guide are identical to those in the 2008 SNA, the MFSMCG, and the BPM6.
For the government’s own statistical needs, data on activities in these zones may be excluded or shown separately.
The economic territory includes: (1) the land area; (2) airspace; (3) territorial waters, including areas over which jurisdiction is exercised over fishing rights and rights to fuel or minerals; (4) in maritime territory, islands that belong to the territory; and (5) territorial enclaves in the rest of the world, such as embassies, consulates, military bases, scientific stations, information and immigration offices, aid agencies, and central bank representative offices with diplomatic status (MFSMCG paragraph 3.53).
Quasi-corporations are unincorporated enterprises that function in all (or almost all) respects as if they were incorporated. For a quasi-corporation to exist, it must be possible to develop a full set of accounts, including balance sheets, to distinguish it from its owners. (For details, see MFSMCG paragraphs 3.18–3.20.)
For those special cases, see MFSMCG paragraphs 3.62–3.86.
In addition to cases in which it is straightforward to identify the accounts of nonresidents, there are several cases in which it is not clear-cut that the account holder is a nonresident of the economy. (For those cases, see MFSMCG paragraphs 3.89–3.99.)
The households sector in the Guide includes NPISH.
As well as accurately portraying the type of institutions covered, the Guide uses the term “deposit takers” rather than “other depository corporations” (ODC) as used in the MFSMCG because of the possible difference in coverage of institutions. In reflecting analytical interest in broad money, ODCs are defined as including all those entities that issue liabilities included in the national definition of money. This may exclude (include) institutional units that are otherwise included (excluded) within the Guide’s definition (e.g., certain offshore banks). Notably, money market funds are explicitly excluded from the Guide’s coverage of deposit takers (see paragraph 2.47) but can be included in the MFSMCG’s coverage of ODCs. Any institutional unit classified as an ODC that does not meet the Guide’s definition of a deposit taker should be classified as OFCs.
For detailed classification of the general government sector and its subsectors see the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014 (GFSM 2014) paragraphs 2.76–2.78.
For indicators of control and how to apply them to establish control of government over corporations, see GFSM 2014 Box 2.2.
The Guide definition for DTs follows closely the SNA 2008 definition of depository corporations, with the exception of the central bank.
For detailed descriptions of those entities, see MFSMCG paragraphs 3.129–3.137.
For example, this could be considered if DTs, which are in distress over a long period of time, have large foreign exchange exposures (but “active” DTs do not).
In contrast, nonautonomous pension funds are not separate institutional units and are therefore not separated from the entity which has organized them, and so their assets and liabilities are reflected in the accounts of that entity. Excluded from the pension fund subsector are nonautonomous pension funds managed by the employer, government sponsored pension schemes funded through social security schemes (pay-as-you-go schemes), and arrangements organized by nongovernment employers for which the reserves of the fund are simply included among the employer’s own resources or are invested in securities issued by that employer.
For detailed descriptions of those entities, see MFSMCG paragraphs 3.155–3.163.
For detailed descriptions of those entities, see MFSMCG paragraphs 3.167–3.179.
Trusts, corporations engaged in lending, pawnshops or pawnbrokers, Special Purpose Entities, and Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are also included in this sector.