Developing Financial Statistics for Policy Graeme Walker OECD Working Party on Financial Statistics, Paris, 3rd November 2009

Summary Introduction Four sections to the paper What happens now Origins of the project Aims Four sections to the paper Main findings What happens now

Introduction Paper is a summary of articles published in July Project set up in response to Financial Crisis Helps ONS fulfil three roles Providing additional tools for policy makers Keeping pace with financial innovation Support the transparency agenda

Four aspects examined Output and employment in Financial Sector Corporate Sector balance sheets Household savings and wealth Public sector balance sheet

Output Lack of coherence between output and employment in some sub sectors Gaps in output indicators Hedge funds SPVs Derivitives Some issues relating to deflation

Balance sheets Incomplete coverage leads to deficiencies in balance sheets Some financial instruments not covered Sources for corporate liabilities particularly weak Household sector source not yet developed Household assets survey

Public sector MFIs newly classified to the public sector Revised presentation Difficulty of classifying subsidiaries New government interventions to classify Presenting broader measures of public sector debt

Future work Need for collaboration with other fiscal departments Long lead time for improvements particularly where new data sources are needed ONS prioritising this work in 2009/10 Some improvements planned for 2010 Blue Book Derivatives Securities dealers Aiming to introduce more improvements into 2011 “Blue Book” Corporate bonds