Cross-border banking exposure
Who banks lend to across borders
The size and shape of international banking, from the Bank for International Settlements. Banks located in 46 reporting jurisdictions held $45.97T of cross-border claims on counterparties in 219 countries in Q4 2025. This page reads the locational statistics (LBS, by country of residence) for the global picture and the consolidated statistics (CBS, by bank nationality) for the per-country funding lens. The two are different risk views and are never summed.
Total cross-border claims, Q4 1977–Q4 2025
LBS cross-border claims of all reporting banks on all counterparties, in USD trillions, quarterly. The Global Financial Crisis is the one sustained contraction in the series: claims peaked at $35.45T in Q1 2008, then fell to $28.45T by Q2 2010, a −19.8% deleveraging, before recovering. Shaded: the GFC, the euro-area stress, and the COVID quarter.
Source: BIS Locational Banking Statistics (WS_LBS_D_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: cross-border claims (measure C, position type cross-border), all reporting countries (5A) vs all countries (5J), all instruments, all currencies, all counterparty sectors, quarterly, amounts outstanding. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Values shown in USD trillions; raw BIS unit is USD millions. Methodology
Largest reporter banking systems
Cross-border claims by the location of the reporting bank (LBS, residence basis), on all counterparties, in Q4 2025. This ranks where the lending is booked, not who owns the bank: financial centres such as Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands rank high because banks of many nationalities book there. The nationality view is the consolidated statistics, shown per counterparty below.
| Reporting system | Cross-border claims | Share of the largest |
|---|---|---|
| GBR United Kingdom | $6.72T | |
| FRA France | $6.15T | |
| JPN Japan | $5.10T | |
| DEU Germany | $4.54T | |
| USA United States | $4.32T | |
| HKG Hong Kong SAR | $2.32T | |
| CHN China | $1.98T | |
| CAN Canada | $1.80T | |
| NLD Netherlands | $1.41T | |
| ESP Spain | $1.24T | |
| ITA Italy | $1.17T | |
| CHE Switzerland | $1.06T |
All figures for Q4 2025.
Source: BIS Locational Banking Statistics (WS_LBS_D_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: cross-border claims (measure C), individual reporting country vs all counterparties (5J), latest quarter, amounts outstanding. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Methodology
Largest counterparty countries
Cross-border claims of all reporting banks on each counterparty country (LBS, all reporters vs individual counterparty), in Q4 2025. This is the funding-recipient side: the United States and United Kingdom dominate, and offshore centres such as the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg rank high as booking locations for globally mobile capital.
| Counterparty | Cross-border claims | Share of the largest |
|---|---|---|
| USA United States | $9.43T | |
| GBR United Kingdom | $6.93T | |
| FRA France | $2.87T | |
| CYM Cayman Islands | $2.61T | |
| DEU Germany | $2.44T | |
| JPN Japan | $1.78T | |
| LUX Luxembourg | $1.55T | |
| NLD Netherlands | $1.24T | |
| CAN Canada | $1.11T | |
| HKG Hong Kong SAR | $1.09T | |
| IRL Ireland | $1.08T | |
| ITA Italy | $1.08T |
All figures for Q4 2025.
Source: BIS Locational Banking Statistics (WS_LBS_D_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: cross-border claims (measure C), all reporting countries (5A) vs individual counterparty country, latest quarter, amounts outstanding. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. The sum over individual counterparties is slightly below the 5J all-countries total because 5J also carries unallocated and international-organisation counterparties. Methodology
Claims on emerging markets
Reporting banks’ cross-border claims on the BIS aggregate of emerging market and developing economies, Q4 2025. EMDEs receive $4.46T, or 9.7% of the $45.97T global total: cross-border bank credit remains concentrated on advanced economies. The three regional sub-aggregates below are BIS’s own groupings and do not sum to the EMDE total (emerging Europe and unallocated emerging positions make up the remainder).
Source: BIS Locational Banking Statistics (WS_LBS_D_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: cross-border claims (measure C), all reporting countries (5A) vs the BIS emerging-market aggregate (4T) and its regional sub-aggregates (emerging Asia-Pacific 4Y, Africa and Middle East 4W, Latin America and Caribbean 4U), latest quarter. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Aggregate codes are BIS's own country groupings, not sums computed here. Methodology
Open any counterparty country for its funding view: how much BIS-reporting banks lend to it, the change since 2019, and the consolidated claims by bank nationality. See the full methodology for LBS versus CBS, the exact selections, and the reporting-population caveat.