Methodology of Estimating “Financial” Margins and their Capturing in the System of National Accounts

Abstract

Margins on buying and selling transactions, or simply “financial” margins, form one part of the complex system of national accounts. These financial services in acquiring and disposing of financial assets and liabilities on financial markets constitute an important role in output of financial institutions. Up to now, the Czech Statistical Office recorded only small part of these margins in national accounts, but in the next revision which is to be published in June 2020 the system should include all types in the whole time series 1993–2019. The aim of this paper is to develop the missing methodology of capturing margins and demonstrate all difficulties connected with their estimation. Our approach is influenced by the fact that in the Czech Republic no suitable database with detailed information about transactions is available. That is why simplifications and assumptions needed to be formulated. The paper contains time series of cross-border margins and domestic margins on transactions with securities, shares, investment fund shares and foreign currencies.

Keywords

• National accounts
• margins on buying and selling transactions
• methodology
• Czech Statistical Office
• cross-border and domestic margins
• tradable financial assets