Report on Foreign Portfolio Holdings of U.S. Securities at End-June 2013

The final results from the annual survey of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities at the end of June 2013 have been released by the US Treasury.
The survey was undertaken jointly by Treasury, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The next survey will cover holdings at the end of June 2014; preliminary data are expected to be released by February 27, 2015.
Complementary surveys measuring U.S. holdings of foreign securities are also carried out annually. Data from the most recent survey, reporting on securities held at year-end 2013, are currently being processed. Preliminary results are expected to be reported by August 29, 2014.
The survey measured the value of foreign portfolio holdings of U.S. securities as of June 30, 2013, to be $14,410 billion, with $5,070 billion held in U.S. equities, $8,462 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities (of which $1,060 billion are holdings of asset-backed securities (ABS) and $7,402 billion are holdings of non-ABS securities), and $878 billion held in U.S. short-term debt securities.
Asset-backed securities are backed by pools of assets, such as pools of residential home mortgages or credit card receivables, which give the security owners claims against the cash flows generated by the underlying assets. Unlike most other debt securities, these securities generally repay both principal and interest on a regular basis, reducing the principal outstanding with each payment cycle.
The previous survey, conducted as of June 30, 2012, measured the value of total foreign holdings of U.S. securities at $12,451 billion, with holdings of $4,237 billion in U.S. equities, $8,213 billion in U.S. long-term debt securities, and $811 billion in U.S. short-term debt securities.