TARGET balances of participating NCBs

TARGET balances are positions on the balance sheets of all euro area countries’ NCBs and the NCBs of non-euro area EU countries that have joined TARGET on a voluntary basis.

Individual NCBs’ series are netted figures. They represent total TARGET claims netted against total TARGET liabilities, where positive values represent a net NCB claim on the ECB and negative values a net NCB liability. The ECB figures represent the ECB’s TARGET balances netted vis-à-vis all the NCBs participating in the TARGET system. The TARGET balances of non-euro area NCBs are also provided netted and aggregated vis-à-vis the ECB under the counterpart area code U4. National data are made available for euro area NCBs only.

By design, the sum of all TARGET balances of claims and liabilities (Eurosystem NCBs plus ECB plus non-euro area NCBs) must equal zero.