- Cross-border bank credit grew by 11% year on year at end-June 2026, bringing the outstanding amount to $40.7 trillion.
- Cross-border bank credit to emerging market and developing economies continued to expand rapidly, growing at annual rate of 8.9%.
- The BIS global liquidity indicators reveal that the euro’s share of foreign currency credit has increased in both bank loans and international debt securities.
Growth in cross-border bank credit stabilised
The BIS locational banking statistics (LBS) reveal that reporting banks’ cross-border claims1 rose by $1.3 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, on an exchange rate- and break-adjusted basis (Graph 1.A). Cross-border bank credit rose by $877 billion in Q2 2026, which brought its outstanding stock to $40.7 trillion. The expansion was driven by both loans and banks’ holdings of debt securities, which increased by $560 billion and $317 billion, respectively. The annual growth rate of cross-border bank credit remained elevated at 11% (Graph 1.B).
Euro-denominated credit accounted for almost half of the global expansion in cross-border bank credit in Q2 2026. Of the total $877 billion increase, $424 billion was denominated in euros and $383 billion in US dollars (Graph 2.A). Both (dollar and euro) currency segments grew at an annual rate of 11% (Graph 2.B).
Cross-border bank credit to emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs)2 continued to grow rapidly in Q2 2026. It expanded by $105 billion during the quarter (Graph 3.A), bringing its annual growth rate up to 8.9% (Graph 3.B). Once again, emerging Europe and Africa and the Middle East saw the highest annual growth rates (19% and 17%, respectively). Cross-border bank credit to Latin America and the Caribbean also grew at a rapid pace (9.3% year on year). By contrast, cross-border bank credit to emerging Asia continued to contract on an annual basis (–2.9%), despite recording a modest ($25 billion) increase in Q2 2026.
The BIS consolidated banking statistics (CBS) on a guarantor basis provide information about banks’ foreign claims on the official sector.3 It is important to note that, in the BIS CBS, the “official sector” includes the general government and the central bank. As a result, reporting banks’ foreign claims on the official sector include not only their holdings of government bonds, but also their holdings of reserves at central banks; these two types of claims cannot be separated in the CBS data.4
At end-June 2026, the top official sector counterparty countries were the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and Italy. Foreign claims on the US official sector amounted to $3.8 trillion, of which roughly three quarters was held by Canadian, Japanese, UK and French banks (Graph 4.A).5 The majority of the $643 billion in banks’ foreign claims on the French official sector was held by UK, US and Japanese banks. Meanwhile, banks’ foreign claims on the Japanese official sector amounted to $593 billion, of which US and French banks accounted for two thirds.
Switching to CBS reporting banks’ perspective, large national banking systems hold considerable stocks of foreign claims on the official sector (Graph 4.B). At end-June 2026, five national banking systems (US, UK, Japanese, French and Canadian banks) each reported foreign claims on the official sector that exceeded $1 trillion. For the four non-US banking systems, these claims were weighted towards US borrowers. In particular, foreign claims on the US official sector accounted for 79% and 55% of the total foreign claims on this sector held by Canadian and Japanese banks, respectively. The corresponding shares for UK and French banks were also significant, at 34% and 27%, respectively. By contrast, US banks’ foreign claims on the official sector were considerably more diversified, with less than half distributed across the official sectors of Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Japan and Italy.
Global liquidity indicators at end-June 2026
The BIS global liquidity indicators (GLIs) track credit to non-bank borrowers, covering both loans extended by banks and funding from global bond markets through the issuance of international debt securities (IDS).6 The main focus is on foreign currency credit denominated in the three major reserve currencies (US dollar, euro and Japanese yen) to non-residents, ie borrowers outside the respective currency areas.
Foreign currency credit continued to expand, with euro-denominated credit growing faster than its dollar- and yen-denominated counterparts (Graph 5.A). This was primarily driven by euro-denominated IDS, which grew at 13% year on year (Graph 5.B), almost double the growth rate of their US dollar-denominated counterparts (6.7%). Euro-denominated bank loans have outpaced their dollar-denominated counterparts since Q3 2024, albeit by a smaller margin than in the case of IDS (Graph 5.C).
Consequently, the euro’s share of foreign currency credit (in both loans and IDS) has increased since 2022, at both current and constant exchange rates (Graph 6.A, solid and dashed lines, respectively). Similar increases in the euro’s share have also been recorded for loans to EMDEs (Graph 6.B, red lines). By contrast, the euro’s share in IDS issued by EMDE borrowers remained relatively stable during the same period (blue lines).
