## Margins on buying and selling transactions

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### Background and nature of margins
- Dealers or market-makers in financial instruments charge, in full or part, for their services by having a spread between their buying and selling prices; these intermediaries are distinguished by generating a buy-sell spread and providing liquidity and inventory.
- Margins (spread earnings) represent implicit charges for the provision of services in market making activities and cannot be treated as holding gains and losses (BPM6, paragraph 3.20 (b) and 2008 SNA, paragraph 3.105).
- In theory, all financial instruments may be bought and sold in a way that can generate margins; in practice, some instruments are more likely to generate margins than others.

### Propensity to generate margins by instrument
- Equities:
  - Trading in equities does not typically generate margins.
  - Equities purchased in primary or secondary markets: margins typically not generated as only explicit fees are charged.
  - Secondary market situations exist in which trading in equities can generate margins.
- Bonds:
  - Trading in bonds often generates margins.
  - Primary bond issuances (initial public offerings): little scope for generation of margins.
  - Secondary markets: government bonds often traded by recognized dealers or commercial/investment banks; corporate bonds traded OTC by dealers—expected to generate margins.
- Foreign exchange:
  - Foreign exchange trading usually generates margins.
  - Inter-bank competition is expected to erode the spread earnings.
- Financial derivatives:
  - Financial derivatives are traded in a way that generates margins.
  - OTC markets are characterized by dealers acting as market-makers quoting purchase and sell prices; trades executed without others having information on the actual transaction price.

### Measurement and compilation challenges
- Bid-ask spreads are relevant but a one-size-fits-all bid-ask spread is not an appropriate proxy for estimating margins.
  - Width of bid-ask spreads influenced by number of market participants, type of relationship between parties (dealer-dealer typically lower spreads; dealer-client typically higher), transaction value, negotiating power of clients, internal transfer prices, etc.
  - Transaction-by-transaction bid-ask spreads would be required for accurate compilation.
- Geographical and sectoral breakdown is difficult because allocation is tied to residency and sector classification of clients rather than the issuer of the traded instrument; “Know Your Customer” regulations can assist in determining residency of trading partners.
- Reasons margins are difficult to compile:
  - Not all instruments are traded in a way that generates margins.
  - Not all transactions by dealers generate margins.
  - Bid-ask spreads may differ significantly across transactions.
  - Geographical and sector allocation is complex to determine accurately.
- Cost-benefit considerations:
  - For many economies the cost of estimating margins is prohibitively high relative to the quality or materiality of the outcome; some economies (for instance in the European Union) do not estimate margins or only provide low-accuracy estimates.
  - Quality estimates are possible where sufficient resources exist.

### Data collection approaches and practical constraints
- Provision/earnings side:
  - A survey with main dealer companies can facilitate accurate compilation of margins, sectoral counterparts, and geographical allocation.
  - Dealers may not be able to identify the proportion of their transactions that generate margins or the bid-ask spread; several estimation methods exist but accurate estimation implies high costs for reporters and compilers.
- Uses/expenditure side:
  - More challenging because all institutional sectors can consume and import this service.
  - An all-encompassing survey covering all institutional sectors would be necessary to identify margins expenditure but could focus on large financial players; benchmarking against bilateral data from other statistical compilers is useful.
- Net vs gross measurement:
  - Some compilers may capture only net spread earnings (earnings net of spending) due to existing collection or accounting systems; this can lead to asymmetries in bilateral data if, for example, net spread earnings are included only on the export side.

### Relevance across economies
- Some economies do not estimate margins (example: Luxembourg analysis by STATEC found margins not relevant for most financial industry players on the export side; import-side relevance not determined).
- For certain countries, margins are highly relevant:
  - United Kingdom: during 1991–2020, the share of margins out of total exports of financial services estimated to range between 9 percent and 37 percent (with a median of 22 percent).
- Discontinuing the methodological requirement for margins would be inconsequential for economies where margins are not relevant but would produce sizeable revisions for major financial centers.

### Issues for discussion and compilation options
- Accurate provision-side estimation best achieved via direct data collection for total value of margins and estimation of counterpart breakdown; resource intensive but methodologically sound.
- Uses-side compilation complexity makes an all-sector survey burdensome; most compilers likely to survey large financial institutions despite potential unknown quality.
- Lack of sufficient resources yields limited quality; balance needed between effort/resources and estimate quality.
- Current practice: no compilers known to use a pure direct data collection strategy; a mixed approach (surveys benchmarked and enhanced with external data) may be more appropriate.
- Options considered:
  - Option A: No need to include changes in the guidance on margins in the updated manuals or compilation guides.
  - Option B: Continue to include margins as a financial service in updated manuals with clearer explanation of relevant concepts; updated compilation guides should discuss tradeoffs among survey-based, estimation, and mixed approaches and permit countries to assess materiality when deciding whether to compile the item.
- Drafting team recommendation:
  - Drafting team recommends Option B on the grounds that current international statistical standards do not sufficiently represent the complexity of margin-generating and margin-consuming behaviors and further explanations, clarifications, and compilation guidance are needed.
  - Manuals should emphasize that not all transactions by institutions classified as dealers generate margins; that a one-size-fits-all bid-ask spread is not accurate; and that compilers must disentangle issuer of an instrument from the counterpart in each transaction.
  - Manuals should acknowledge compilation approaches can be direct collection, estimation, or mixed; survey-based models are costlier; provide a list of assumptions usable in estimation-based models.
  - Include a materiality threshold permitting implicit recording of the item in the relevant category in the financial account when the relative size in services is small and does not justify high efforts to compile it properly.
  - Note ECB quality report experience: EU countries face challenges and have recommendation to improve sources and methods for this item.
  - Reiterate that margins are a service item and compilers should attempt to estimate it.

### Methodological excerpts and practical guidance (BPM6 references and examples)
- BPM6 3.90: "When securities are quoted on markets with a buy-sell spread, the midpoint should be used to value the instrument. The spread is an implicit service of the dealer, paid by buyers and sellers (see paragraphs 10.122–10.123). Similarly, positions in financial assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currency should be valued using the midpoint at close of business between the buying and selling rates on the reference date."
- BPM6 8.13: "The value of financial instruments should be recorded exclusive of any commissions, fees, service charges, regulatory levies, and taxes, whether charged explicitly, included in the purchaser’s price, or deducted from the seller’s proceeds. Commissions and dealers’ margins, as discussed in paragraphs 10.120–10.123, are payable in return for the provision of financial services, so they should be excluded from the instrument price and included in services, where applicable. Therefore, the buyer and seller record financial account transactions, at the same mid-price, that is, the midpoint between the buyer’s price and the seller’s price."
- Nature of measurement:
  - Dealers’ service charges are included indistinguishably in the financial transactions to which they relate; the difference between the reference price and the dealer’s buying price at the time of purchase represents the service charge to the seller, and the difference between the reference price and the dealer’s selling price at the time of sale represents the value of the service provided to the buyer.
  - Reference price is usually a mid-price between the buying and selling prices; some dealers may have internal prices.
  - Using the reference (mid) price at the time of purchase or sale excludes holding gains or losses on the dealer’s trading activity from services.
  - Service can also be measured by applying the dealers’ average margin as a percentage to the value of transactions through dealers.
- Securities and foreign exchange specifics:
  - For debt securities traded on organized markets, the service charge when securities are acquired and sold represents the margin added to the estimated market value (ask price) or subtracted from the market value (bid price).
  - To avoid including holding gains and losses in service margin estimates, calculate margins on sales and purchases in terms of mid-prices: the margin on the purchase of a security is one half of the difference between the bid and ask prices at the time of the purchase; the margin on the sale is the other half of the difference between the bid and ask prices at the time of the sale.
  - For transactions denominated in foreign currencies, BPM6 recommends converting at midpoint rates applicable at the times of the transactions because the spread reflects the provision of services; using actual buy and sell rates can introduce distortions.
- Numerical examples:
  - Example 1: Dealer sells 100 units of foreign currency to importers for 101 units of domestic currency; dealer buys 100 units of foreign currency from exporters for 99 units of domestic currency; dealer profit: 2 units of domestic currency.
  - Example 2: A foreign exchange dealer in economy A sells 100 units of foreign currency to a resident of economy B for 102 units of domestic currency (financial services exports of 2 units to B). A dealer in economy A buys 100 units of foreign currency from residents of economy C for 97 units of domestic currency (financial services exports of 3 units to C).
- Classification and recording guidance:
  - Speculative profits earned by dealers from taking positions are capital in nature and should not be recorded as income.
  - When a resident dealer transacts with a non-resident other than a dealer, record a financial service credit entry; when a non-resident dealer transacts with a resident other than a dealer, record a financial service debit entry.
  - When a foreign exchange transaction occurs between a resident dealer and a non-resident dealer, transactions may occur at the midpoint with neither dealer selling services to the other; at other times, one dealer will be the price-maker (producer) and the other the price-taker (consumer); compilers should identify separately transactions in which the resident dealer is the price-maker (service credits) from those in which the resident dealer is the price-taker (service debits), where significant.
- Data collection and estimation approaches:
  - Direct collection may be difficult because resident consumers may not know values of services implicitly purchased from non-resident dealers and resident dealers may be unable to supply information on services provided to non-residents.
  - A data model can estimate foreign exchange services by multiplying the average spread between midpoint and buy/sell rates by the volume of foreign exchange transactions with non-residents.
  - Information on spreads could come from discussions with dealers; information on volumes could come from the institution supervising/regulating the foreign exchange market or from market participants.
  - Compilers may consider consulting BIS triennial global survey data on foreign exchange and derivative market activity as a reference point (frequency is relatively low).

### Practical compilation experience: country practices
- United Kingdom (Bank of England):
  - The Bank of England collects aggregate data for trading margins generated by UK monetary financial institutions (MFIs) via a quarterly survey using Form PL, which collects income and expenditure including explicit and implicit fees.
  - Firms may have a reporting exemption if they believe their aggregate trading margin income amounts to less than £25 million a quarter.
  - Acceptable firm methodologies include:
    - (i) Direct capture method: difference between sale/purchase price and the “mid-market” price for all transactions; margin multiplied by volume traded gives net spread earnings.
    - (ii) Use of a “trader’s price” as an approximation for the mid-market price when mid-market is not recorded.
    - (iii) Estimation based on appropriate management information (internal management accounting figures).
  - Net spread earnings are reported for foreign exchange, securities, and derivatives. Counterparty breakdowns for sub-instruments are estimated using sources such as the Bank’s semi-annual turnover survey and the BIS Triennial Survey.
- United States (BEA):
  - The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates margins rather than relying on direct reporting, concluding that companies making markets and earning income from margins are unlikely to be able to provide usable microdata on margins.

### Consultation, consensus, and recording options
- Financial and Payments Systems Task Team (FITT) members broadly agreed margins are an implicit service charge; some suggested dropping explicit recording under services, but authors withdrew that Option C.
- Global Consultation results: broad support for Option B (76 percent).
- Committee and AEG: supported Option B, modified based on consultation comments while acknowledging compilation difficulties for some economies.
- Option B includes a materiality principle allowing a materiality threshold for implicit recording in the financial account when the relative size in services is small and does not justify high compilation effort; ECB Working Group on External Statistics Virtual Group recommended careful analysis to establish whether effort outweighs benefits.

*International Monetary Fund (approved guidance notes and related compilation guidance on margins on buying and selling transactions).*

### SECTION I: THE ISSUE

### SECTION I: THE ISSUE

### Background and nature of margins
- Dealers or market-makers in financial instruments may charge, in full or part, for their services by having a spread between their buying and selling prices; these intermediaries are distinguished by generating a buy-sell spread and providing liquidity and inventory.
- Margins (spread earnings) represent implicit charges for the provision of services in market making activities.
- Given that net spread earnings are strongly connected to the provision of a service, those margins cannot be treated as holding gains and losses (as defined in BPM6, paragraph 3.20 (b) and 2008 SNA, paragraph 3.105).
- In theory, all financial instruments may be bought and sold in a way that can generate margins; in practice, some instruments are more likely to generate margins than others.

### Propensity to generate margins by instrument
- Equities:
  - Trading in equities does not typically generate margins.
  - Equities purchased in primary or secondary markets: margins typically not generated as only explicit fees are charged.
  - Secondary market situations exist in which trading in equities can generate margins.
- Bonds:
  - Trading in bonds often generates margins.
  - Primary bond issuances (initial public offerings): little scope for generation of margins.
  - Secondary markets: government bonds often traded by recognized dealers or commercial/investment banks; corporate bonds traded OTC by dealers—expected to generate margins.
- Foreign exchange:
  - Foreign exchange trading usually generates margins.
  - Inter-bank competition is expected to erode the spread earnings.
- Financial derivatives:
  - Financial derivatives are traded in a way that generates margins.
  - OTC markets characterized by dealers acting as market-makers quoting purchase and sell prices; trades executed without others having information on the actual transaction price.

### Measurement and compilation challenges
- Bid-ask spreads are relevant but a one-size-fits-all bid-ask spread is not an appropriate proxy for estimating margins.
  - Width of bid-ask spreads influenced by number of market participants, type of relationship between parties (dealer-dealer typically lower spreads; dealer-client typically higher), transaction value, negotiating power of clients, internal transfer prices, etc.
  - Transaction-by-transaction bid-ask spreads would be required for accurate compilation.
- Geographical and sectoral breakdown is difficult because allocation is tied to residency and sector classification of clients rather than the issuer of the traded instrument; “Know Your Customer” regulations can assist in determining residency of trading partners.
- Reasons margins are difficult to compile:
  - Not all instruments are traded in a way that generates margins.
  - Not all transactions by dealers generate margins.
  - Bid-ask spreads may differ significantly across transactions.
  - Geographical and sector allocation is complex to determine accurately.
- Cost-benefit considerations:
  - For many economies the cost of estimating margins is prohibitively high relative to the quality or materiality of the outcome; some economies (for instance in the European Union) do not estimate margins or only provide low-accuracy estimates.
  - Quality estimates are possible where sufficient resources exist.

### Data collection approaches and practical constraints
- Provision/earnings side:
  - A survey with main dealer companies can facilitate accurate compilation of margins, sectoral counterparts, and geographical allocation.
  - Dealers may not be able to identify the proportion of their transactions that generate margins or the bid-ask spread; several estimation methods exist but accurate estimation implies high costs for reporters and compilers.
- Uses/expenditure side:
  - More challenging because all institutional sectors can consume and import this service.
  - An all-encompassing survey covering all institutional sectors would be necessary to identify margins expenditure but could focus on large financial players; benchmarking against bilateral data from other statistical compilers is useful.
- Net vs gross measurement:
  - Some compilers may capture only net spread earnings (earnings net of spending) due to existing collection or accounting systems; this can lead to asymmetries in bilateral data if, for example, net spread earnings are included only on the export side.

### Relevance across economies
- Some economies do not estimate margins (example: Luxembourg analysis by STATEC found margins not relevant for most financial industry players on the export side; import-side relevance not determined).
- For certain countries, margins are highly relevant:
  - United Kingdom: during 1991–2020, the share of margins out of total exports of financial services estimated to range between 9 percent and 37 percent (with a median of 22 percent).
- Discontinuing the methodological requirement for margins would be inconsequential for economies where margins are not relevant but would produce sizeable revisions for major financial centers.

### Issues for discussion and compilation options
- Accurate provision-side estimation best achieved via direct data collection for total value of margins and estimation of counterpart breakdown; resource intensive but methodologically sound.
- Uses-side compilation complexity makes an all-sector survey burdensome; most compilers likely to survey large financial institutions despite potential unknown quality.
- Lack of sufficient resources yields limited quality; balance needed between effort/resources and estimate quality.
- Current practice: no compilers known to use a pure direct data collection strategy; a mixed approach (surveys benchmarked and enhanced with external data) may be more appropriate.
- Increasing availability of granular/micro data may make future compilation easier and more accurate.
- Options considered:
  - Option A: No need to include changes in the guidance on margins in the updated manuals or compilation guides.
  - Option B: Continue to include margins as a financial service in updated manuals with clearer explanation of relevant concepts; updated compilation guides should discuss tradeoffs among survey-based, estimation, and mixed approaches and permit countries to assess materiality when deciding whether to compile the item.

### Drafting team recommendation and rationale (Outcomes)
- Drafting team recommends Option B.
  - Current international statistical standards do not sufficiently represent complexity of margin-generating and margin-consuming behaviors.
  - Need for further explanations, clarifications, and compilation guidance.
- Manuals should:
  - Emphasize that not all transactions by institutions classified as dealers generate margins.
  - Note that a one-size-fits-all bid-ask spread is not accurate because each transaction is unique.
  - Require disentanglement between the issuer of an instrument and the counterpart in each transaction; do not assume issuer equals counterpart.
  - Acknowledge compilation approaches can be direct collection, estimation, or mixed; survey-based models are costlier; provide a list of assumptions usable in estimation-based models.
  - Note ECB quality report experience: EU countries face challenges and have recommendation to improve sources and methods for this item.
  - Reiterate that margins are a service item and compilers should attempt to estimate it.
- Materiality principle in Option B:
  - Allow a materiality threshold permitting implicit recording of the item in the relevant category in the financial account when the relative size in services is small and does not justify the high efforts to compile it properly.
  - ECB Working Group on External Statistics Virtual Group recommended careful analysis to establish whether effort outweighs benefits; materiality exemption may be appropriate.
  - Current movement toward increased availability of transaction-by-transaction data may facilitate future estimation even if such data remain inaccessible for many compilers now.

### Consultation and consensus
- Financial and Payments Systems Task Team (FITT) members held diverse views but nearly all agreed margins are an implicit service charge.
  - Some FITT members suggested dropping explicit recording under services and recording margins implicitly in the financial account; authors withdrew that Option C as a retrograde step.
  - Authors included a materiality threshold in Option B to allow compilers not to estimate when not materially relevant.
- Global Consultation results: broad support for Option B (76 percent).
- Committee and AEG: supported Option B, modified based on consultation comments while acknowledging compilation difficulties for some economies.

### Relevant methodological excerpts from BPM6 (Annex I)
- BPM6 3.90:
  - "When securities are quoted on markets with a buy-sell spread, the midpoint should be used to value the instrument. The spread is an implicit service of the dealer, paid by buyers and sellers (see paragraphs 10.122–10.123). Similarly, positions in financial assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currency should be valued using the midpoint at close of business between the buying and selling rates on the reference date."
- BPM6 8.13:
  - "The value of financial instruments should be recorded exclusive of any commissions, fees, service charges, regulatory levies, and taxes, whether charged explicitly, included in the purchaser’s price, or deducted from the seller’s proceeds. Commissions and dealers’ margins, as discussed in paragraphs 10.120–10.123, are payable in return for the provision of financial services, so they should be excluded from the instrument price and included in services, where applicable. Therefore, the buyer and seller record financial account transactions, at the same mid-price, that is, the midpoint between the buyer’s price and the seller’s price."

*Guidance Note prepared by Andrei Iustin Mihailescu (European Central Bank), Perry Francis (Bank of England), and Ruth Judson (Federal Reserve Board), with assistance from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.*

### 10.122 Dealers or market-makers in financial instruments may charge, in full or part, for their services by

### Margins on buying and selling transactions

### Nature of the service and measurement
- Dealers or market-makers in financial instruments charge, in full or part, for their services by having a spread between their buying and selling prices. Dealers, market-makers, foreign exchange bureaus, and other intermediaries producing this kind of service are distinguished by the existence of a buy-sell spread and by providing liquidity and inventory.
- Instruments commonly traded with spreads include foreign exchange, shares, bonds, notes, financial derivatives, and other financial instruments.
- Dealers’ service charges are included indistinguishably in the financial transactions to which they relate; the difference between the reference price and the dealer’s buying price at the time of purchase represents the service charge to the seller, and the difference between the reference price and the dealer’s selling price at the time of sale represents the value of the service provided to the buyer.
- The reference price is usually a mid-price between the buying and selling prices; some dealers may have their own internal price for determining their buying and selling prices.
- Using the reference (mid) price at the time of purchase or sale excludes holding gains or losses on the dealer’s trading activity from services.
- The service can also be measured by applying the dealers’ average margin as a percentage to the value of transactions through dealers.

### Securities and foreign exchange specifics
- For debt securities traded on organized markets, the service charge when securities are acquired and sold represents the margin added to the estimated market value (ask price) or subtracted from the market value (bid price).
- To avoid including holding gains and losses in service margin estimates, calculate margins on sales and purchases in terms of mid-prices: the mid-price is the average at a given point in time between the bid and ask price.
  - The margin on the purchase of a security is one half of the difference between the bid and ask prices at the time of the purchase.
  - The margin on the sale is the other half of the difference between the bid and ask prices at the time of the sale.
- For transactions denominated in foreign currencies, the BPM6 recommends converting at midpoint rates applicable at the times of the transactions because the spread reflects the provision of services. If actual buy and sell rates are used, distortions can be introduced into balance of payments numbers.

### Numerical examples illustrating recording and service treatment
- Example 1 (dealer profit from FX spread):
  - Dealer sells 100 units of foreign currency to importers for 101 units of domestic currency.
  - Dealer buys 100 units of foreign currency from exporters for 99 units of domestic currency.
  - Dealer profit: 2 units of domestic currency.
- Example 2 (residence cross-border FX dealer services):
  - A foreign exchange dealer in economy A sells 100 units of foreign currency to a resident of economy B for 102 units of domestic currency (financial services exports of 2 units to B).
  - A dealer in economy A buys 100 units of foreign currency from residents of economy C for 97 units of domestic currency (financial services exports of 3 units to C).

### Classification and recording guidance
- Speculative profits earned by dealers from taking positions (e.g., buying and holding currencies expecting value to rise) are capital in nature and should not be recorded as income.
- When a resident dealer transacts with a non-resident other than a dealer, record a financial service credit entry. When a non-resident dealer transacts with a resident other than a dealer, record a financial service debit entry.
- When a foreign exchange transaction occurs between a resident dealer and a non-resident dealer:
  - Transactions may occur at the midpoint between buy and sell prices, with neither dealer selling services to the other.
  - At other times, one dealer will be the price-maker (producer) and the other the price-taker (consumer); compilers should identify separately transactions in which the resident dealer is the price-maker (service credits) from those in which the resident dealer is the price-taker (service debits), where significant.
- Many reported transactions may use buy and sell rates, introducing errors into balances. These errors may be minor in the current account unless the economy is a major provider of foreign exchange services, but could be significant in the financial account where turnover is high. Compilers should examine reporting practices and make adjustments to accounts (or publish findings) when serious misreporting occurs.

### Data collection and estimation approaches
- Direct collection of information on balance of payments transactions attributable to foreign exchange trading may be difficult because:
  - Resident consumers may not know values of services implicitly purchased from non-resident dealers.
  - Resident dealers may be unable to supply information on services provided to non-residents.
- A data model can estimate foreign exchange services by multiplying the average spread between midpoint and buy/sell rates by the volume of foreign exchange transactions with non-residents.
  - Information on spreads could come from discussions with dealers.
  - Information on volumes could come from the institution supervising/regulating the foreign exchange market or from market participants.
  - Compilers may consider consulting BIS triennial global survey data on foreign exchange and derivative market activity as a reference point (frequency is relatively low).

### Practical compilation experience: country practices
- UK (Bank of England) approach:
  - The Bank of England collects aggregate data for trading margins generated by UK monetary financial institutions (MFIs) via a quarterly survey using Form PL, which collects income and expenditure including explicit and implicit fees.
  - Firms may have a reporting exemption if they believe their aggregate trading margin income amounts to less than £25 million a quarter.
  - The BoE is flexible on how firms derive quarterly estimates; acceptable methodologies include:
    - (i) Direct capture method: difference between sale/purchase price and the “mid-market” price for all transactions; margin multiplied by volume traded gives net spread earnings.
    - (ii) Use of a “trader’s price” (price quoted to the trader by the Treasury unit) as an approximation for the mid-market price when mid-market is not recorded.
    - (iii) Estimation based on appropriate management information (internal management accounting figures, e.g., sales margin used for remuneration) where mid-market price cannot be determined.
  - Net spread earnings are reported for foreign exchange, securities, and derivatives. Counterparty breakdowns for sub-instruments are estimated using sources such as the Bank’s semi-annual turnover survey and the BIS Triennial Survey.
- US approach:
  - The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) estimates margins rather than relying on direct reporting, concluding that companies making markets and earning income from margins are unlikely to be able to provide usable microdata on margins.

### Cross-references to other statistical manuals and frameworks
- The treatment and measurement guidance aligns with BPM6, BPM6 Compilation Guide (Chapter 12 paragraphs 114–116), MSITS 2010, MSITS 2010 Compilers Guide, 2008 SNA, and ESA 2010 descriptions emphasizing that margins between buying and selling prices are treated as the provision of financial services.

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/data/statistics/bpm6/approved-guidance-notes/f13-margins-on-buying-and-selling-transactions.pdf_