Who banks lend to across borders

Foreign-currency credit beyond the home market

The BIS global liquidity indicators combine bank loans and international debt securities issued by non-banks. These are the three headline stocks owed by borrowers outside the currency’s home area, from Q1 2000 to Q1 2026. Each level panel is in trillions of its named currency: USD, EUR or JPY. The shared chart below uses only year-on-year per cent rows. Levels and growth rates never share an axis.

Source: BIS Global Liquidity Indicators (WS_GLI), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: CURR_DENOM = USD/EUR/JPY; BORROWERS_SECTOR = N; LENDERS_SECTOR = A; L_POS_TYPE = I; BORROWERS_CTY = 3P; L_INSTR = B; levels use UNIT_MEASURE equal to the named currency; growth uses UNIT_MEASURE = 771; quarterly. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Level rows carry UNIT_MULT = 6 and are shown in trillions of the named currency. Growth rows are year-on-year per cent. Methodology

USD credit by borrower country

Published country detail for the same USD credit measure in Q1 2026, in US dollars. The BIS country set is not exhaustive, so these rows are not summed. Eleven BIS aggregate codes are excluded from the country list to avoid mixing regions and countries or double counting.

Source: BIS Global Liquidity Indicators (WS_GLI), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: CURR_DENOM = USD; BORROWERS_SECTOR = N; LENDERS_SECTOR = A; L_POS_TYPE = I; L_INSTR = B; UNIT_MEASURE = USD; latest quarter; individual BORROWERS_CTY codes only. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Raw levels carry UNIT_MULT = 6, millions of US dollars. Aggregate borrower codes 4T, 3P, 5J, 4U, 4Y, 5C, 4W, 2A, 6E, 2R and 3C are excluded, and the remaining countries are not summed. Methodology

Data as of Q1 2026 (BIS global liquidity indicators)

What currencies global bank claims are denominated in

BIS locational banking statistics split the global cross-border claims stock by currency of denomination. The lines are shares of the official all-currency total, with no renormalization. Levels in the latest table are USD-equivalent millions, so a USD-denominated claim is not presented as a USD-native series. Denomination is also not borrower residence, lender nationality, booking location, or settlement currency. The separate other-or-unallocated residual is not assigned to any named currency.

Source: BIS Locational Banking Statistics (WS_LBS_D_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: amounts outstanding (S); total claims (C); cross-border position type (N); all instruments; all currency types; all parent nationalities; all reporting banks; all reporters (5A) vs all counterparties (5J); L_DENOM free with TO1 as the official denominator; quarterly. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Named component levels and the TO1 total are BIS-published USD-equivalent millions. TO3 and UN9 are excluded as overlapping aggregate buckets; their space remains in the computed other-or-unallocated residual. Methodology

Data as of Q4 2025 (BIS locational banking statistics)

Total cross-border claims, Q4 1977–Q4 2025

LBS cross-border claims of all reporting banks on all counterparties, in USD trillions, quarterly. The deepest drawdown from a running high runs from $35.45T in Q1 2008 down to $27.08T in Q4 2016, −23.6%. Claims first exceed the Q1 2008 level again in Q4 2020. Shaded: the GFC, the euro-area stress, and the COVID quarter.

Source: BIS Locational Banking Statistics (WS_LBS_D_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: cross-border claims (measure C, position type cross-border), all reporting countries (5A) vs all countries (5J), all instruments, all currencies, all counterparty sectors, quarterly, amounts outstanding. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Values shown in USD trillions; raw BIS unit is USD millions. Methodology

Largest reporter banking systems

Cross-border claims by the location of the reporting bank (LBS, residence basis), on all counterparties, in Q4 2025. This ranks where the lending is booked, not who owns the bank: financial centres such as Hong Kong rank high because banks of many nationalities book there. The nationality view is the consolidated statistics, shown per counterparty below.

Source: BIS Locational Banking Statistics (WS_LBS_D_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: cross-border claims (measure C), individual reporting country vs all counterparties (5J), latest quarter, amounts outstanding. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Methodology

Largest counterparty countries

Cross-border claims of all reporting banks on each counterparty country (LBS, all reporters vs individual counterparty), in Q4 2025. This is the funding-recipient side: the United States and United Kingdom dominate, and offshore centres such as the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg rank high as booking locations for globally mobile capital.

Source: BIS Locational Banking Statistics (WS_LBS_D_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: cross-border claims (measure C), all reporting countries (5A) vs individual counterparty country, latest quarter, amounts outstanding. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. The sum over individual counterparties is slightly below the 5J all-countries total because 5J also carries unallocated and international-organisation counterparties. Methodology

Claims on emerging markets

Reporting banks’ cross-border claims on the BIS aggregate of emerging market and developing economies, Q4 2025. EMDEs receive $4.46T, or 9.7% of the $45.97T global total: cross-border bank credit remains concentrated on advanced economies. The three regional sub-aggregates below are BIS’s own groupings and do not sum to the EMDE total (emerging Europe and unallocated emerging positions make up the remainder).

Source: BIS Locational Banking Statistics (WS_LBS_D_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: cross-border claims (measure C), all reporting countries (5A) vs the BIS emerging-market aggregate (4T) and its regional sub-aggregates (emerging Asia-Pacific 4Y, Africa and Middle East 4W, Latin America and Caribbean 4U), latest quarter. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Aggregate codes are BIS's own country groupings, not sums computed here. Methodology