Statistical Notices to Reporting Banks 1999/03
Statistical Notices should be received by all those responsible for the completion of Bank of England returns. To add names to the circulation list please contact us on 020 7601 3644.
- Birmingham Midshires’ absorption by Halifax (effective end-April 1999)
- Postal bank accounts (effective by end-September 1999)
- Classification of hedge funds (effective immediately)
- Structured UK tax leases (effective immediately)
- Corrections to BT definitions (effective immediately)
- Amended QX internal validations (effective immediately)
- Re-issued internal and cross-form validations for the "C" forms (effective immediately)
- New forms reminder
- Reporting schedule (July 1999 – June 2000)
1. Birmingham Midshires’ absorption by Halifax (effective
from end-April 1999)
On 19 April 1999 Halifax will merge with Birmingham Midshires
Building Society. The name will continue to be seen in the
High Street for the time being, but Birmingham Midshires’ business
will be part of Halifax plc. As a result, all banks’ business
with Birmingham Midshires should be reclassified from building
societies to UK banks from the end-April returns.
Consequently, deposits from, balances with and funds lent to Birmingham Midshires and holdings of financial instruments issued by Birmingham Midshires (such as certificates of deposit, bonds, floating rate notes, etc.) should be reclassified in all statistical returns as deposits from, lending to or holdings of financial instruments issued by a UK bank. Reporting institutions should adopt this reclassification of the institution commencing with the forms to be completed as at end-April 1999.
The pro-forma is provided for reporting institutions to record certain aspects of their business with Birmingham Midshires as at end-March 1999. This will enable Monetary & Financial Statistics Division to adjust changes data to eliminate the effects of the sector change. Please complete the pro-forma and attach it to the end-March Form BT. Electronic reporters should send their pro-formas to Karen Westley at the address provided, to arrive no later than their electronic deadline. Please note that nil returns are required.
2. Postal bank accounts (effective by end-September 1999)
Postal deposit accounts (excluding those with alternative instant
access arrangements such as via ATMs or immediate transfer
to a sight account e.g. by telephone or Internet) are deemed
to be time deposits. This is due to the postal element resulting
in a delay in the customer using the money even if the bank
responds to their request by return post.
Please ensure that all postal bank accounts described above are classified as time deposits by end-September 1999. Please inform the Helpdesk (0207 601 5360) of any reclassifications resulting from this guidance to enable Monetary & Financial Statistics Division to adjust changes data to eliminate the reclassification effects.
The BT definitions have been amended to include above guidance and new pages are included with this Statistical Notice.
3. Classification of hedge funds (effective immediately)
"
Hedge funds" have hitherto not been specifically mentioned
in the Classification of Accounts Guide.
They are prohibited from advertising and are not obliged to report details on a regular basis to any regulatory body, and as a result little is known about particular hedge funds. They are nonetheless large (especially because of their practice of "gearing up" by borrowing from banks), so it is important that reporting institutions classify them correctly.
Guidance on the classification of hedge funds is as follows:
Economic sector (Forms BE, QX and others): Financial corporations
other than monetary financial institutions
Industrial sector (Forms AL and AD): Item 15K Other financial
intermediaries not elsewhere covered
However, there are very few hedge funds registered in the UK;
most are registered overseas and much of their trading is conducted
through a "brass plate office" acting as an agent
in the UK for an overseas office or headquarters. Reporting
institutions should investigate where the hedge fund counterpart
is conducting its business from and in many cases will find
that the correct classification is as a non-resident (i.e.
resident anywhere other than the mainland of Great Britain
and Northern Ireland - see Classification of Accounts Guide
part II) and therefore not impacting upon forms AL, AD or BE
(because these analyse only positions with UK residents).
This link shows an illustrative list of some of the larger hedge funds and similar non-bank leveraged institutions (funds of funds, emerging market, currency and futures funds) with their country of registration. Reporting institutions should add this list to their Classification of Accounts Guide in the yellow Banking Statistics Folder.
Please inform the DBS Helpdesk (020 7601 5360) of any reclassifications
resulting from this guidance to enable Monetary & Financial
Statistics Division to adjust changes data to eliminate the
reclassification effects.
4. Structured UK tax leases (effective immediately)
Where a reporting institution acts as the defeasance entity,
it should record the defeasance payments received from the
lessee as a sundry creditor within BT item 19CD and QX item
19CD4. Where a reporting institution employs a third party
to act as the defeasance entity, it should classify the re-deposit
of the defeasance payments in the usual way, e.g. item 2J
or 3J if the third party is a non-resident subsidiary.
BT and QX definitions have been amended and new pages are included with this Notice.
5. Correction to BT definitions (effective immediately)
The definition for Item 43 (facilities) on Form BT has been
amended to exclude 41G (new
defs included with this Notice).
The associated internal validations (110, 111 and 112) are
correct and no changes to systems are required in that respect.
6. Amended QX/BT cross form validations (effective immediately)
QX (numbers 109, 110 and 111) versus BT (numbers 359, 360,
361, 389, 390, 391, 419, 420 and 421) cross form validations
have been amended. New pages to be inserted within the QX and BT cross form validations sections are included with
this Notice.
7. Re-issued internal and cross-form validations for
the "C" forms
(effective immediately)
Amended definitions, item codes and validations in line with
the recently re-issued forms CA, CB, CC and CL are included
with the paper version of this Statistical Notice. To download
the new versions of these, please go to the Yellow Folder page.
Some BT and QX validations (BT numbers 604 and 606, and page
of QX vs. CA validations) are also issued in line with the
new "C" form validations.
8. New forms reminder
Reporting institutions are reminded that the new Form CB should
be used from end-February, Forms CC, CL, CA, CH and DQ from
end-March and B1 and C1 from end-June.
The new versions of Forms B1, C1, CA, CB, CC, CH, CL and DQ have now been dispatched. For more copies please contact us on 020 7601 5360.
9. Reporting schedule (July 1999 – June 2000)
Reporting schedules for statistical returns, beginning with
July 1999 deadlines are available with this Statistical Notice
as follows;
UK incorporated banks and branches of overseas banks (Form BT quarterly reporters)
Branches of overseas banks (Form BT monthly reporters)
UK incorporated banks (From BT monthly reporters)
Bank of England
Monetary & Financial Statistics Division
26 March 1999
