Definition: Financial asset

Category: External debt - IMF

Financial assets are stores of value, over which ownership rights are enforced and from which their owners may derive economic benefits—such as property income and/or holding gains and losses—by holding them over a period of time. Most financial assets differ from other assets in the system of national accounts in that they have counterpart liabilities on the part of another institutional unit. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ramon/statmanuals/files/external_debt_guide_2003_EN.pdf#page=255