March 25, 2014
Bank of Japan
Research and Statistics Department

The Bank of Japan releases retroactively revised figures of the Flow of Funds Accounts (hereafter the FFA) every March.¹ The revised figures reflect the updated information on source data, the financial system, and legislations. Today, the Bank has posted retroactively revised fiscal-year and quarterly data from the second quarter of 2000 in the "BOJ Time-Series Data Search."

This revision focuses on updating entrusted assets of the structured-financing special purpose companies (SPCs) and on recording equities invested in privately placed real estate funds, both of which reflect enriched information on the securitization and investment funds market. As part of this revision, figures for central government securities and FILP bonds held by private nonprofit institutions serving households sector are retroactively revised in order to respond to users' need for eliminating a break in the time-series data. Figures for reconciliation between flows and stocks in outward investments in securities by financial institutions for small businesses sector have become available, providing accurate flow data for the relevant transaction.

The main points are as follows:

i) SPCs and trusts sector

Source data for entrusted assets especially of monetary claim trust beneficiary rights are scrutinized and the released figures are retroactively updated to fit into the proper asset category of this sector. In addition, the item of structured-financing instruments on the asset side is now posted to represent the amount of multiple-stage securitizations, for example, monetary claim trust beneficiary rights held by trusts.

Along with this update, new breakdowns of underlying assets in trust beneficiary rights "Amounts Outstanding of Securitized Products" are released.

ii) Equities invested in privately placed real estate funds

Equities invested in privately placed real estate funds are estimated based on market surveys on privately placed real estate funds and are posted as equities in the issuing and holding sectors.

iii) Central government securities and FILP bonds held by private nonprofit institutions serving households

In order to eliminate a break in the time-series data for central government securities and FILP bonds held by private nonprofit institutions serving households, figures are retroactively revised to conform to last year's revision of the sector.² At the same time, the compilation method for this item held by the sector is updated.

iv) Reconciliation between flows and stocks in outward investments in securities by financial institutions for small businesses sector

Due to data limitation, reconciliation between flows and stocks in outward investments in securities by financial institutions for small businesses sector was not compiled, which means that the term-on-term stock differences derived from price and foreign exchange rate changes were reflected as transactions (flows). Estimated with supplementary source data, the reconciliation between flows and stocks of the item has become available.

1. For this year, in particular, retroactively revised figures will also be released in June, in order to reflect the rearranged data for Balance of Payment and International Investment Positions statistics based on BPM6 (the new statistical standard).
2. See Data Revisions of the Flow of Funds Accounts in 2013.

Inquiries

Financial Statistics Group, Economic Statistics Division, Research and Statistics Department

E-mail : post.rsd5@boj.or.jp