Definition: Financial transactions

Category: European System of Accounts (ESA)

Transactions in financial assets and liabilities between resident institutional units, and between them and non-resident institutional units (ESA 2010).

Financial transactions are transactions in financial assets and liabilities between institutional units, and between them and the rest of the world. 

Considering the definition of a transaction, a financial transaction is an interaction between institutional units, or between an institutional unit and the rest of the world, by mutual agreement, involving a simultaneous creation or liquidation of a financial asset and the counterpart liability, or a change in ownership of a financial asset, or an assumption of a liability.

Seven categories of financial transactions are distinguished: transactions in monetary gold and special drawing rights, transactions in currency and deposits, transactions in securities other than shares, transactions in loans, transactions in shares and other equity, transactions in insurance technical reserves and transactions in other accounts receivable/payable (ESA 1995). http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/product?code=KS-02-13-269&mode=view European Union, Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union, Official Journal of the European Union No L 174, 26.06.2013, p. 1 - 727

Eurostat, "European System of Accounts - ESA 1995", Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 1996