José Manuel González-Páramo: New investment fund statistics for the
euro area
Introductory remarks by Mr José Manuel González-Páramo, Member of the Executive Board
of the European Central Bank, for the first statistical release, Frankfurt am Main,
11 December 2009.
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome to the ECB. Today it is my pleasure to introduce an important new set of statistics
for the euro area as single economic entity. These statistics provide detailed harmonised
information on the assets and liabilities of investment funds resident in the euro area. They
are compiled by the ECB in close cooperation with the national central banks. Fruitful work
has also been conducted in liaison with the European Fund and Asset Management
Association (EFAMA), a business association represented in this room.
Since the inception of the ECB, major progress has been achieved in developing monetary
and financial statistics for the euro area. This work, carried out in close cooperation with the
Member States, has resulted in a full range of timely and high quality euro area statistics,
which the ECB constantly monitors in performing its policy functions. The first major steps
were the implementation of euro area statistics for monetary financial institutions (in
particular to derive statistical information on monetary aggregates), lending and interest
rates, as well as on the balance of payments. In recent years, efforts have focused on the
development of statistics for other financial sectors. This also reflects the increasing links
between the banking sector and other financial institutions. Moreover, our statistics have
been integrated into the euro area accounts, which provide an overall picture of the euro
area economy. The next milestone is the release of the new investment funds statistics,
today.
For some years, the ECB has already published un-harmonised and partly estimated euro
area investment fund statistics, at a quarterly frequency. Today we will present, for the first
harmonised
time, investment fund statistics that cover all investment funds resident in the
euro area. This includes data for the main fund types such as bond, equity or mixed funds,
but also other types of funds, including hedge funds. Our new dataset contains much more
detailed breakdowns both on the assets held and liabilities issued by investment funds. The
data provide, for example, detailed information on the residency and sector of the issuers of
securities and shares held by the funds. New information is available, as well, on the
residency of the holders of the shares issued by euro area investment funds. In addition to
the detailed quarterly information, the ECB now also publishes key monthly information on
the outstanding amounts and net sales of shares issued by the funds. A further important
improvement concerns the timeliness of the publication of these statistics: as from 2010, the
statistics will become available after one-and-a-half months (compared to 3-and-a-half
months in the past).
There are many reasons why high quality statistics on euro area investment funds are
important for the ECB's monetary and financial analysis. Let me just highlight two of them:
First, since investment funds are large institutional investors, their portfolio choices may be
indicative of more general trends in portfolio diversification. For that reason, these statistics
are certainly also useful for explaining monetary developments. Second, changes in
investment funds' asset value are transmitted, through the valuation of their shares, to
households and firms. In turn, these wealth effects, may have implications on aggregate
demand. The structure of the financial assets held by investment funds also provides
important information regarding the financial risks that are indirectly borne by households
and firms through their portfolio of investment fund shares.
In addition to the new statistics on investment funds, separate data are now also published
every quarter on euro area Money Market Fund balance sheets. As a consequence, one can
now perform analyses for the whole sector of funds. These new data on Money Market
Funds are also a useful addition to the ECB's monetary analysis. Because of the close
substitutability between their shares issued and bank deposits, money market funds form
part of the Monetary Financial Institutions sector and are thereby contained in the M3 figures.
From now on, the new investment fund and money market fund data will be published in
regular monthly ECB statistical press releases. I am convinced that the new harmonised
statistics yield novel insights into the structure and development of the financial sector of the
euro area economy. The financial crisis clearly demonstrated that high quality and up-to-date
statistics are indispensable to policy makers and market participants alike.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Now, the Director General Statistics, Mr. Steven Keuning, will present more detailed features
and the first results of the new statistics. Following his presentation we stand ready to
answer your questions.