in - house, drawing on the powers under the reserve bank act ( 1989 ) to collect data from financial institutions. these data account for most of the other 16, 000 time series in our fsis database and include institutional data collected for prudential purposes, data on the financial markets, data on notes and coins, and published financial system statistics. our survey respondents include banks and other financial institutions and this “ micro - data ” is used in our role as a prudential regulator and supervisor. commercial confidentiality means that this data isn ’ t generally published, but we use it to compile broader financial system statistics. we ’ ve a well - established practice of constructing and publishing these statistics. an example would be the standard statistical return for the banking system, which provides comprehensive information on the banking system ’ s balance sheet. some of our statistics act as inputs in the production of statistics new zealand ’ s own statistics, including the national accounts. table 1 some key reserve bank financial sector statistics collection coverage standard statistical return ( ssr ) banks and non - bank lending institutions credit card survey credit card issuers liquidity survey banks lvr new commitments banks with residential mortgage lending trade weighted indexes major trading partner currencies planned / under development insurance data collection licensed insurers managed funds survey investment and superannuation funds managed by nz fund managers income statement survey banks bank balance sheet survey banks nz securities database securities issued in the new zealand market bis central bankers ’ speeches financial statistics since the global financial crisis our financial data collections have grown substantially in recent years for three reasons. first, the intensity of our prudential oversight has increased since the global financial crisis of 2008 / 09. we ’ ve sought to strengthen our prudential regime for banks for example. as elsewhere, the gfc showed that risks around bank liquidity and funding in a period of financial turmoil were potentially much greater than anyone had expected. in 2010, we introduced new standards for banks requiring new minimum liquid asset requirements and a minimum core funding ratio. introducing these new standards meant that we needed new liquidity and funding data to monitor compliance with the new standards at both an individual bank and financial system level. another example of stronger prudential standards has been the introduction of temporary speed limits on the banks ’ high - loan - to - value ( lvr ) lending reflecting our concern at the growing risks in the housing sector. this, in turn, required us to collect additional data on banks ’ housing lending broken down by lvr

stemming from the global macro - financial environment. ii. risks in the global macro - financial environment over the past six months, the adjustment of global current account imbalances has continued, driven by the global economic slowdown and the overall fall in commodity prices, especially energy, from the peaks of mid - 2008. the current account deficit of the us is now projected to fall to 2. 6 % of gdp in 2009, which is almost 2. 3 percentage points lower than in the previous year. the major counterparts to the adjustment of the us current account balance have continued to be the surplus economies of eastern asia and the oil - exporting the cut - off date for data included in the december 2009 fsr was 27 november 2009. countries. the current account surplus of japan is projected to narrow to 1. 9 % of gdp in 2009, while china ’ s current account surplus is forecast to decline by 2 percentage points to 7. 8 % gdp in 2009, as robust domestic demand has underpinned imports growth which has exceeded that of exports. however, this ongoing adjustment of global imbalances is rather fragile, as it remains largely driven by cyclical factors related to the financial crisis rather than by structural factors. looking ahead, there is a risk of re - emergence of sizeable global imbalances stemming from various sources, including a possible widening of the us current account deficit as the economy recovers and if the substantial fiscal stimulus persists. turning to external risks stemming more directly from the us economy, there were some positive developments, but vulnerabilities also remain. the us housing market has shown some signs of stabilisation over recent months. both home sales and housing construction appear to have bottomed out since earlier this year, while the decline in house prices ceased in july 2009. the case - shiller futures price index for ten major us cities now indicates that house prices are expected to remain broadly flat over the next three years ( see chart 1 ). nevertheless, the risk of a renewed deterioration in the us housing market and, therefore, possible further losses for households ’ net worth in the us and the financial sector has not disappeared. while the pace of increase in delinquencies on mortgages and in foreclosures has been slowing down, the excess stock of vacant homes remains considerable and might continue to exert downward pressure on house prices. in addition, the demand for housing has been spurred by tax credits for first - time home buyers, but this incentive has