Portfolio Investment: Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS): Background

The Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS) is being conducted on an annual basis in response to global asymmetries in reported balance of payments data, especially those in portfolio investment flows. These asymmetries were originally identified and analyzed in the IMF Report on the Measurement of International Capital Flows (Godeaux Report, 1992). The Godeaux Report recommended that steps be taken by countries to ensure:

• Improved coverage and better implementation of international standards for balance of payments financial account statistics.
  
  
• That statistical activities be endowed with appropriate resources and legal powers.
  
  
• That stock data are collected on a regular basis.
  
  
• That an effort be made to undertake a coordinated benchmark survey of international portfolio assets broken down by partner country to permit the calculation of portfolio investment liabilities from creditor sources.
  
  

In October 1994 the IMF Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics established a Task Force under the auspices of the IMF to develop a survey of portfolio investment assets to be coordinated among countries. (While some countries were already conducting national surveys, there had not been a coordinated international approach in timing and design.)

The first CPIS was conducted in 1997, when 29 economies participated.

The CPIS has the following major goals:

• All the participants undertake a benchmark portfolio asset survey at the same time.
  
  
• Participants follow definitions and classifications that are mutually consistent by following the methodology set out in the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM5).
  
  
• All participants provide a breakdown of their stock of portfolio investment assets by the country of residency of the nonresident issuer.
  
  
• Best practices in survey design and implementation are drawn on to the maximum extent possible.
  
  

The geographic requirement is intended to permit the construction of a partner country source for portfolio investment liabilities, with due regard being given to respecting confidentiality constraints (to facilitate which the Fund acted as a clearing house). These goals are fully consistent with plans by national compilers to implement the recommendations of the fifth edition of the BPM5 for the financial account and international investment position.

The CPIS is being undertaken on an annual basis since 2001, but data are also available for the 1997 CPIS.

On March 1 and 2, 2006, the Bank of Spain hosted an international conference on the Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS), an international survey, conducted under the auspices of the IMF. The purpose of the conference was to demonstrate how the survey can and has been used. It was attended by 120 data users and compilers from around the world. http://www.bde.es/doctrab/confere/confee_7.htm

See also the side-bars of this page for additional information on the CPIS surveys.

Contact information:
Please e-mail any questions or comments to cpis@imf.org.