FinObservatory

Cross-border banking exposure / Eritrea

What the world’s banks lend to Eritrea

The funding view: cross-border claims of BIS-reporting banks on Eritrea, from the locational statistics (LBS, by lender residence), with the consolidated claims by bank nationality (CBS) alongside. BIS-reporting banks held $296M of cross-border claims on Eritrea in Q4 2025, up from $4M when the series begins in Q1 1999.

$296M
LBS cross-border claims
Q4 2025, all reporters
−$17M
Change since 2019
−5.4% vs Q4 2019
$589M
LBS liabilities to Eritrea
Q4 2025, banks’ funding from
$2M
CBS international claims
Q4 2025, nationality basis

Cross-border claims on Eritrea, Q1 1999Q4 2025

LBS cross-border claims of all reporting banks on Eritrea, in USD billions, quarterly. The GFC and COVID quarters are shaded. This is the residence view, where a claim counts by where the lending bank sits, so a claim on Eritrea booked from any reporting jurisdiction is included.

Hover for daily values

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 Eritrea as counterparty, all instruments, all currencies, all counterparty sectors, quarterly, amounts outstanding. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Values shown in USD billions; raw BIS unit is USD millions. Methodology

Consolidated claims by bank nationality

No consolidated (nationality-basis) claims on Eritrea are published in the latest CBS quarter (Q4 2025). The consolidated statistics have a narrower reporting panel than the locational statistics, and individual bank-nationality detail on Eritrea is either not reported or suppressed as confidential. The residence-based claims above are unaffected.

Source: BIS Consolidated Banking Statistics (WS_CBS_PUB), BIS Data Portal (data.bis.org). Selection: international claims (measure I, domestic banks 4B, immediate-counterparty basis F) on Eritrea as counterparty, latest quarter. License: free with “Source: BIS” attribution. Methodology

Back to the cross-border overview, or Eritrea’s full financial profile on its country page. See the methodology for LBS versus CBS and the exact selections.