BANKING

Typical questions

Points to consider

Where to look

Key organizations

Trade associations

These provide news on the profession, lists of members and basic statistical data. Most also contain materials on banking regulation.

British Bankers Association

www.bba.org.uk

Publishes the Annual Abstract of Banking Statistics covering the UK industry (subscribers only). Other less detailed statistics can be downloaded free of charge. These include high street banking, credit card and mortgage data.

Building Societies Association

www.bsa.org.uk

Includes statistics on building society assets.

International Banking Federation (IBFed)

www.ibfed.org

Represents national banking associations. Useful links to websites of members.

UK Payments

www.ukpayments.org.uk

Formerly the Association for Payment Clearing Services (APACS), trade association of organizations providing payment clearing services.

Central banks

These websites usually provide information on the state of the national economy, national reserves and assets as well as data on banking systems and policies.

Bank of England

www.bankofengland.co.uk

Free access to Monetary Policy Committee minutes, the Inflation Report and Financial Stability reports. The statistics section BankStats has time series of financial and monetary data. Issues covered include financial institutions’ balance sheets, public sector borrowing, interest rates and exchange rates. Check data coverage of series on the website.

Bank for International Settlements

www.bis.org

International organization which promotes international monetary and financial co-operation between central banks. Its website has a central bank hub with free access to useful directories of national authorities, speeches from bank governors and research reports. The statistics section provides free access to some international and national banking statistics. These include cross-border lending and borrowing of internationally active banks, securities, derivatives, external debt and property prices.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve

www.federalreserve.gov

Central bank of United States. Website has explanations of the system as well as a large number of publications and statistical reports. Users with a specific interest in statistical data should also consult the St Louis Federal Bank FRED site, research.stlouisfed.org/fred2, a free database of over 27,000 economic time series.