Bank exposure: The eurozone risk

This interactive graphic explores European national banking systems’ holdings of the public and private sector debt of other European countries.

Based on the latest quarterly data published by the Bank for International Settlements, the graphic shows foreign claims vis a vis individual countries by the nationality of reporting banks up to the end of September 2012.

These figures include banks’ local subsidiaries and branches of foreign banks. It therefore provides a way to measure the risk exposures of lenders’ national banking systems and shows one way in which “contagion” could potentially be transmitted through the financial system.