The regulatory framework for European statistics envisages provides two possible approaches for acquiring information on financial transactions on banks' securities holdings: (i) direct data collection from banks, as is currently done in Italy, or (ii) compilation of data through indirect methods. The progressive improvements of the sources that can be used to implement indirect methods is at the heart of the comparison between the two methods carried out in this study on listed securities in Italian banks' portfolios.
As applied to listed securities in Italian banks' portfolios during the considered time frame (2017-2019), at aggregate level, indirect methods provide consistent estimates compared with direct methods for the compilation of the banks' balance sheet items statistics. Even in the analysis of phases characterized by higher price volatility, the differences between the two methods remain limited. These findings hold across different types of instruments held by banks (equity and bonds).
