Data Sources for the UK's Flow of Funds

BACKGROUND The Office for National Statistics (ONS), working in partnership with the Bank of England, has ambitious plans to transform our economic statistics over the coming years, informed by our Economic Statistics and Analysis Strategy and with the aim of increasing the robustness and quality of UK economic statistics.

A key element of our transformation work is the development of enhanced financial statistics – in particular more detailed “flow of funds” statistics – to meet evolving user needs.

It is of particular importance to the UK, with its large and international financial sector, that good quality, detailed financial statistics are available to drive the robust analyses required by policymakers, economists and market analysts.

Counterparty information (“whom-to-whom” statistics) on balance sheets (stocks) and transactions (the “flow of funds”) are a particular requirement.

Two of the main objectives for the UK’s enhanced financial accounts are to improve the quality, coverage and granularity of the UK’s financial accounts, including whom-to-whom statistics, and to improve our flexibility to meet new or ad hoc demands for financial statistics in the future, preferably through the use of rich, record-level data sets.

This allows much greater flexibility to evolving requirements for granularity than surveys do, as new breakdowns can be created from different cuts of the same data.

SCOPE We are looking for data we can compile into our quarterly, annual and ad hoc financial statistics which are published on a non-disclosive basis i.e. do not allow for individuals (people or organisations') to be identified.

Our preference is to receive record-level data and we need clear explanations of both the source of the data and any methodology used in the production of the data.

The areas we are interested in include: • balance sheet levels; • transactions and income from securities (debt securities, equity, investment fund shares / units) and; • loans and alternative finance, such as peer-to-peer lending.

Data collected from this tender will be used for the purpose of producing aggregate statistics and for statistical research.

The ONS have a defined set of policies on the collection and storage of data, ensuring its use is in a secure environment.

Further information on ONS’s data policies and security policies can be found on the ONS website.

USES OF FLOW OF FUNDS Flow of funds statistics have a wide range of analytical applications, in addition to assisting with the assessment of financial stability.

If suitable data sources are found, other uses for flow of funds could include improving our understanding of: • market sectors, for example the size of the unsecured loans market; • how businesses fund investment in financial and non-financial assets; • the impact of changes in credit conditions; • shadow banking and alternative finance; • trends in growth of, for example, hedge funds, peer-to-peer lending.