Enhancing the breakdowns of portfolio investment in debt securities
29 July 2025
[Charts 3 and 4 and the explanatory text for chart 4 were revised on 5 August 2025 at 4.40pm to better reflect the new data being disseminated.]
By Milena Matteo, Antonio Rodríguez Caloca and Chiara Torri
The ECB has released new data that provides additional insights on the characteristics of euro area cross-border portfolio investment positions in debt securities.[1] The additional breakdowns allow users to better understand portfolio investment dynamics.
Holdings of debt securities’ assets are further broken down by:
- additional currencies, like the British pound;
- additional issuer countries/areas, like the Cayman Islands or OPEC;
- additional resident and counterpart issuer sectors, including insurance corporations;
- original and residual maturities, six new maturity brackets; and
- sustainability type, providing information on green bonds and other sustainable debt securities.
In addition, both assets and liabilities are broken down by risk class[2] using credit ratings information. Assets and gross external debt[3] indicators are also made available at nominal value in addition to the existing market valuation.
This blog post focuses on the breakdowns by risk class, sustainability type, and currency of denomination.
Portfolio investment positions in debt securities by risk class
The new details by risk class exhibit distinctive trends for assets and liabilities.
On the assets side, the euro area investors have been increasing their share of low-risk foreign debt securities (rated from AAA to AA-) in recent years (up from 39% at the end of 2021-Q1 to 45% at the end of 2025-Q1). This development is mostly explained by the contribution of deposit-taking corporations (see interactive Chart 1).
On the liabilities side, the share of low-risk euro area debt securities (rated from AAA to AA-) held by foreigners remained rather stable around 54%. This evolution is the result of an increase by deposit-taking corporations and general government which was offset by the decrease observed both for financial corporations other than MFIs and non-financial corporations and households (see interactive Chart 2).
Holdings of debt securities assets by sustainability type
Euro area portfolio investment assets in green bonds and other sustainable debt securities[4] have more than doubled since 2021-Q1[5]. This is mostly explained by developments in green bonds for which cross-border assets increased by almost threefold (see interactive Chart 3). However, the share of green bonds in total eura area portfolio investment debt assets remain modest at 5% in 2025-Q1. Investment funds held around 41% of these assets in 2025-Q1, followed by deposit-taking corporations and insurance corporations (18% and 15%, respectively)[6].
Holdings of debt securities assets by additional currency of denomination
With the addition of Australian dollar, Brazilian real, British pound, Danish Krone, Mexican peso, Swedish krona and Swiss franc to the existing detail for Euro, US dollar and Japanese yen, the currency of denomination detail of euro area portfolio investment debt securities assets now covers the ten main currencies[7].
While the US dollar- and euro-denominated foreign debt securities account for the large majority of the total debt securities assets in 2025-Q1 (almost 80%), the British pound, the third most significant currency accounts for 9%. Australian dollar, Brazilian real, Swiss franc, Danish Krone, Mexican peso and Swedish krona represented all together around 3% of the total in 2025-Q1.
All in all, this new data release provides high added value for users in terms of monetary, economic, and financial stability analysis purposes.
Further information
Related statistics
Portfolio investment debt securities enhancements
The views expressed in each article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the European Central Bank and the Eurosystem.
[1] Portfolio investment includes those transactions and positions in securities not classified either as direct investment (the resident in one economy has the control or significant degree of influence over a non-resident entity) or reserve assets (securities not denominated in national currency held by central banks). Further information can be found in chapter 7 of the European Union Balance of Payments and International Investment Position statistical sources and methods - “B.o.p. and i.i.p. e-book”, July 2025.
[2] Securities have been allocated to five risk classes: the Risk 1 category includes securities rated from AAA to AA-, the Risk 2 from A+ to A-, the Risk 3 from BBB+ to BBB-. In addition, the Risk 4 includes all rated securities with a rating below BBB- and the Risk 5 reflects those securities without a rating.
[3] The definition and further details can be found at the European Union Balance of Payments and International Investment Position statistical sources and methods - “B.o.p. and i.i.p. e-book”, October 2023.
[4] Green bonds are those debt securities where the proceeds are used to finance green projects while other sustainable debt securities are those debt securities where the proceeds are used to finance social projects or a combination of green and social projects.
[5] The data shown in the interactive Chart 3 refer to “self-assessed” assurance instruments, i.e. debt securities where their issuers label them as sustainable. A similar picture is obtained when analysing “second party opinion” assurance instruments, i.e. when a second party provides an opinion on whether the bond is indeed green or sustainable.
[6] Additional information on sustainability debt securities referring to the total economy can be found at this link: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/all-key-statistics/horizontal-indicators/sustainability-indicators/data/html/ecb.climate_indicators_sustainable_finance.en.html.
[7] Australian dollar, Brazilian real, British pound, Danish Krone, Mexican peso, Swedish krona and Swiss franc are only available for total economy excluding Eurosystem assets. Data for Euro, Japanese yen and US dollar can be found at this link. Data are presented in percentage of total debt securities assets.