Working Group on Securities Databases (WGSD)

Working Group on Securities Databases

Last Updated: May 08, 2023

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The Working Group on Securities Databases (WGSD), originally established in 1999, was reconvened in July 2007 in response to various international initiatives and recommendations to improve information on securities markets. The core members of the WGSD are the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the European Central Bank (ECB) (chair), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) .

In 2009, the first Data Gaps Initiative (DGI-1) was launched, when Ministers of Finance and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) of the Group of 20 Economies (G20) endorsed a report prepared by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Secretariat and the IMF staff, The Financial Crisis and Information Gaps , which included 20 recommendations to address data gaps. In the context of DGI-1, Recommendation 7 on Securities Statistics called for “central banks and, where relevant, statistical offices, particularly those of the G20 economies, to participate in the BIS data collection on securities and contribute to the further development of the BIS-ECB-IMF Handbook [on Securities Statistics ].” The WGSD was also called upon “to develop and implement a communication strategy for the Handbook." Following the completion of DGI-1 Recommendation 7, all G20 economies participated – to various degrees – in the BIS data collection and the Handbook on Securities Statistics was published in May 2015, together with an accompanying communication document .

In September 2015, the G20 FMCBG endorsed the launch of the second phase of the DGI (DGI-2). The main objective of DGI-2 is to implement the regular collection and dissemination of reliable and timely statistics for policy use. The DGI-2 aimed at setting more specific objectives with the intention for the G20 economies to compile and disseminate minimum common datasets for these recommendations. To support the DGI-2, the WGSD developed a proposal for a new Recommendation II.7 on Securities Statistics, which defined precise data sets on debt securities to be reported to the BIS. The proposal provided for a set of reporting templates with a core set of data to be reported by the G20 economies by 2021, including an intermediate objective by 2018, and a more advanced objective by 2021.

A First Workshop on Securities Statistics for G20 economies focusing on the new Recommendation II.7 — organized by the WGSD and hosted by the ECB — took place in Frankfurt on 14-15 April 2016. At the Workshop, representatives from G20 economies, the WGSD, and the FSB reached a common view on the final reporting templates for Recommendation II.7 under DGI-2 and an accompanying Explanatory Note that references the tables to the Handbook. As a follow-up to the Workshop, the G20 economies and almost all non-G20 FSB member economies provided self-commitments on the implementation of these reporting templates.

A Second Workshop on Securities Statistics for G20 economies was organized by the WGSD and hosted by the IMF in Washington, D.C. on 21-22 March 2018. The Workshop assessed the progress with the implementation of the reporting under the DGI-2 Recommendation II.7 and agreed on the technical details for the 2018 intermediate reporting objectives.

Data Collection on Securities

The BIS has been collecting and disseminating information on debt securities issues in domestic and international markets since the late 1980s. Statistics are collected for more than 50 economies. Following the publication of the Handbook, the BIS has been working with the central banks of these countries to improve the statistics in line with the recommended concepts, breakdowns, and presentation tables of the Handbook.

Data on debt securities issues are reported on a regular quarterly (end-quarter) basis. The BIS disseminates the data in comparable formats in its publications and on its website.

In addition, the ECB publishes monthly data on debt and equity securities issues for the euro area and euro area countries, quarterly data on holdings of debt and equity securities by euro area resident sectors, and quarterly “from-whom-to-whom” securities statistics as part of the euro area accounts. The IMF implements the Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey (CPIS). Please see the “Related Links” page for details on these data collections.

HANDBOOK

The Handbook on Securities Statistics is the first publication of its kind to focus exclusively on securities statistics. It has been prepared jointly by the BIS, the ECB, and the IMF in response to a request from the WGSD to develop methodological standards for securities statistics and to improve information on securities markets.

Download the Handbook

The Handbook provides a conceptual framework for securities statistics, including classifications for different possible breakdowns. It also provides high-level and detailed presentation tables that should assist in the compilation and dissemination of securities statistics. The Handbook is based on the 2008 System of National Accounts and the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, sixth edition (BPM6) . It goes partly beyond these standards by elaborating on additional breakdowns on issues and holdings of debt and equity securities. Special attention is also paid to valuation and accounting rules, as well as to specific operations related to debt and equity securities.

The preparation of the Handbook was supported by a Review Group for the Handbook on Securities Statistics, consisting of officials from national central banks and relevant statistical agencies, as well as from international and regional organizations with an active interest and expertise in debt securities statistics. Members of the review group commented on drafts of the Handbook and actively participated in review group meetings held during October 28-29, 2008 in Basel; March 15-16, 2010 in Frankfurt; and October 12-13, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

In addition to the comments of the review group, drafts of the Handbook benefitted from worldwide comments from experts.

EVENTS

The WGSD at the Second Workshop on Securities Statistics at the IMF in Washington DC on 21-22 March 2018.

First G20 Workshop on Securities Statistics

A first Workshop on Securities Statistics for G20 economies took place at the ECB in Frankfurt am Main during 14-15 April 2016. The Workshop was jointly organized by the BIS, the ECB and the IMF as members of the WGSD. Officials from almost all G20 economies as well as representatives of the BIS, IMF and the FSB attended the meeting.

The Workshop focused on developing the action plan for the implementation of Recommendation II.7 on Securities Statistics of the Second Phase of the Data Gaps Initiative (DGI-2), taking into consideration national priorities while ensuring that the common priorities set out in the Sixth Progress Report of the G20 DGI are adequately addressed. The Workshop also reviewed the achievements of the work on Securities Statistics during the DGI-1, shared national and international experiences in the compilation of Securities Statistics and discussed user’s perspectives on these statistics.

The Workshop helped to reach a common view on the way forward on Recommendation II.7 and agreed on a proposal for the reporting templates for the DGI-2 Securities Statistics. In particular, reporting templates for debt securities issues statistics, debt securities holdings statistics and from-whom-to-whom debt securities issues and holdings were agreed. Specifically, the reporting template for debt securities issues statistics includes three tables:

· Table 1.1: Debt securities issues, stocks at nominal value;

· Table 1.2: Debt securities issues, stocks at market value; and

· Table 1.3: Debt securities issues, transactions at market value.

The reporting template for debt securities holdings statistics includes two tables:

· Table 2.1: Debt securities holdings, stocks at market value; and

· Table 2.2: Debt securities holdings, transactions at market value.

And the reporting template for from-whom-to-whom debt securities statistics includes one table:

· Table 3.1: From-whom-to-whom debt securities issues and holdings, stocks at market value.

The core data for the implementation of Recommendation II.7 under DGI-2 are highlighted in blue in tables 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 and should be provided by the G20 economies with reference date end-2018 for Table 1.1 (intermediate target), and by 2021 for Table 1.2 and 1.3 (2021 target). The content of the reporting templates and the corresponding tables are described in detail in the Explanatory Note on the reporting templates on Recommendation 7.

As a follow-up, G20 economies were invited to provide self-commitments concerning the implementation of the reporting templates. These self-commitments were presented at the DGI-2 Global Conference that took place in Basel on 6-7 June 2016 and are available at the website of the Principal Global Indicators:

Second G20 Workshop on Securities Statistics

A Second Workshop on Securities Statistics for G20 economies was organized by the WGSD and hosted by the IMF in Washington, D.C. on March 21-22, 2018. At the Workshop, 48 representatives from 22 G20 and non-G20 FSB economies, the FSB, and the WGSD discussed the required future work on the implementation of Recommendation II.7. The Workshop benefitted from a rich exchange of experience between the participating economies, including nine economy presentations on the experiences and challenges in the implementation of Recommendation II.7 and the use of security-by-security data for compiling securities statistics.

The Second Workshop confirmed the self-commitments for the 2018 intermediate reporting objective. Via a questionnaire circulated ahead of the Workshop, it was confirmed that all economies that made self-commitments expect to fully or mostly implement their self-commitments for 2018. Thereby, some economies even indicated that they expect to disseminate additional series that were not part of the self-commitments made in 2016.

Implementation status of intermediate targets (2018)

Regarding the technical infrastructure for the reporting of securities statistics, the Workshop agreed on the re-use of the existing Global DSD on Sector Accounts for exchanging data on securities statistics, noting that this is not a mandatory requirement for the reporting to the BIS in the context of Recommendation II.7. The Sector Accounts DSD is proactive in providing all required dimensions for the reporting of data covered by the Recommendation II.7 Reporting Templates, including the data for 2021. The Workshop participants also reached a common view on the operational details of the reporting of data under Recommendation II.7. For the reporting of the intermediate objectives data, it was agreed to transmit data with reference date Q4/2018 by beginning of May 2019 (i.e. with a timeliness of 4 months) at the latest.

Note on reporting of Recommendation II.7 intermediate target data

The discussions at the Workshop highlighted the benefits of an increased use and greater standardization of security-by-security (SBS) data. Several presentations emphasized that the effective use of SBS data requires the application of unique identifiers for securities and their issuers and holders as well as the standardization of other key reference data attributes. Workshop participants sympathized with the idea that the use of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI)—as the only global and license-free identifier for financial market participants—should be further promoted. Moreover, in order to support the use of SBS data in the compilation of comparable and consistent securities statistics, the idea was mentioned that the existing BIS-ECB-IMF Handbook on Securities Statistics could be complemented by an addendum on SBS data standards.

Stock-taking on implementation status of 2021 targets

To provide an overview of where the G20/FSB economies stand with the implementation of their self-commitments for the 2021 targets, the WGSD circulated a questionnaire on the implementation status of self-commitments in January 2020, which was completed by all G20/FSB economies that made self-commitments (except for one). The responses to the questionnaire confirmed the self-commitments made in 2016 and showed that the G20/FSB economies had made significant progress with the implementation of Recommendation II.7. For each of the three reporting templates, almost all economies that had made self-commitments expected to fully or mostly implement them by 2021.

Conference Call on Securities Statistics

A Third Workshop on Securities Statistics for G20 and FSB Economies had been planned for April 2020, but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the BIS, ECB and IMF as core members of the WGSD organised a Conference Call on 21 October 2020 attended by 57 representatives from 23 G20 and non-G20 FSB economies, the FSB, the World Bank and the WGSD.

The Conference Call on Securities Statistics confirmed the self-commitments for the 2021 reporting objectives of Recommendation II.7. Regarding the transmission of securities statistics, the participants supported extending the reporting timeline by six months in line with the corresponding extension of the conclusion of the DGI-2. In particular, it was agreed to transmit Q2/2021 data for the 2021 reporting objectives by November 2021. Finally, the call also discussed the strategic priorities for continuing and deepening the cooperation between compilers of securities statistics, including future workshops and courses, the continuation and expansion of the data collection, and an update of the Handbook on Securities Statistics.

Agenda of the Conference Call on Securities Statistics

Previous Events

Third Meeting of the Review Group of the Handbook on Securities Statistics , October 12-13, 2011, Washington, DC, USA
Second Meeting of the Review Group for the Handbook on Securities Statistics , March 15-16, 2010, Frankfurt, Germany
Meeting of the Review Group for the Handbook on Securities Statistics , October 28-29, 2008, Basel, Switzerland
Fourth Irving Fisher Committee Conference on Measuring Financial Innovation and its Impact , August 26–27, 2008, Basel, Switzerland
Irving Fisher Committee Workshop on Challenges to Improve Global Comparison of Securities Statistics, March 4–5, 2008, Washington, D.C.

held in Washington, D.C. during March 4–5, 2008