Analysis of the Sectoral Financial Interlinkages of the Financial Sector in Austria against the Background of the Recent Financial Crisis

Abstract

In Austria the compilation of flow-of-funds accounts (including balance sheets), here called financial accounts, is based on a ‘from-whom-to-whom’ relationship between creditors and debtors for each individual financial instrument. The compilation, in the form of a matrix, was designed in the wake of the introduction of the compilation of financial accounts under the European System of Accounts (ESA, 1995) in 1996. Major changes in terms of economic sector delineation will occur due to reclassification of holding companies and - partly - special purpose entities as part of the financial sector, accompanied by the more detailed breakdown of sub-sectors within the financial sector, when the revised, 2010 version of the ESA is introduced in 2014. The compilation of financial accounts on a ‘from-whom-to-whom’ basis simultaneously allows the analysis of financial investment and financing of various sectors based on different financing channels, and indicates the importance of individual sectors as creditors and debtors. Against this background developments in financial interlinkages involving the financial sector have been observed, especially from the viewpoint of financial intermediation and the relationship between the individual sub-sectors of the financial sector as affected by the financial crisis.

The views expressed in ihis chapter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Oesierreiehisebe Nationalbank. Section 11.4 of this chapter was mainly influenced by the work done by Stefan Kavan.