Originally Published: 4/9/2014 MAJOR HOLDERS OF TREASURY SECURITIES (In Millions of Dollars)   FFY 2012 FFY 2013 FFY 2014 FFY 2015 FFY 2016 SUMMARY of DEBT Total Public Debt 1 11,280,000 12,001,000 12,779,000 13,117,000 14,168.00 Public Issue Held by Federal Reserve Board 2 1,639,000 2,315,000 2,767,288 2,802,101 2,830,115 Public Debt Securities 9,641,000 9,686,000 10,011,712 10,314,899 11,337,885       HOLDERS OF DEBT 3 United States 4,106,400 4,033,100 3,941,412 4,208,699 5,182,785 FOREIGN 4 Mainland China 1,169,900 1,293,800 1,266,300 1,258,000 1,157,000 Japan 1,139,900 1,178,100 1,221,800 1,177,100 1,136,400 Ireland 97,400 111,300 110,600 222,500 270,900 Cayman Islands 8 - - - - 262,100 Brazil 254,100 249,200 262,300 251,600 258,100 Switzerland 187,800 177,200 186,200 227,600 240,700 Luxembourg 144,700 141,100 156,100 191,000 227,200 United Kingdom 5 133,200 158,300 167,800 215,100 217,500 Hong Kong 138,500 126,500 159,000 198,600 189,800 Taiwan 197,200 185,900 173,400 178,100 189,300 Belgium 136,400 172,500 353,900 135,800 142,700 India 59,600 56,800 80,000 113,500 122,700 Caribbean Banking Centers 6 273,500 300,900 318,800 322,700 - Germany 64,000 61,900 75,000 83,400 102,900 Singapore 97,500 80,300 108,500 122,900 101,300 Saudi Arabia 9 - - - - 89,400 Korea 42,200 55,600 54,500 69,400 88,500 Canada 58,300 62,400 65,400 69,200 85,000 Russia 171,100 140,500 117,700 89,100 76,500 France 58,700 54,500 72,300 51,700 71,100 Bermuda 8 - - - - 64,300 United Arab Emirates 9 - - - - 63,800 Turkey 51,600 54,300 74,700 68,900 61,500 Norway 75,500 72,200 81,800 69,800 56,800 Netherlands 30,700 32,200 35,600 39,800 52,200 Thailand 58,600 38,900 33,500 31,900 49,900 Mexico 59,200 63,800 76,500 78,700 47,700 Italy 28,000 28,800 29,500 33,900 42,000 Spain 25,300 21,500 21,700 34,500 39,500 Philippines 36,900 38,100 35,200 41,900 39,000 Sweden 29,000 32,600 36,000 40,200 38.300 Australia 26,700 34,200 35,400 31,300 34,500 Poland 30,400 30,800 28,500 28,400 33,500 Columbia 29,900 33,400 33,800 36,800 - Australia 26,700 34,200 35,400 31,300 - Chile 30,900 26,700 26,400 27,800 - Kazakhstan7 - - 35,000 25,400 - Denmark 14,900 11,600 16,200 18,400 - Israel 28,900 21,900 26,500 17,400 - Vietnam7 - - 13,700 12,600 - Peru 13,400 14,500 11,200 11,300 - South Africa 12,800 13,800 - - - Malaysia 19,500 12,400 - - - OPEC 9 262,200 245,700 279,400 291,300 - All others 246,200 218,700 190,100 188,600 503,000 Total Foreign Holders 5,561,300 5,687,100 6,105,700 6,137,500 6,155,100 PUBLIC DEBT SECURITIES 9,641,000 9,686,000 10,011,712 10,314,899 11,337,885 NOTE TO THE READER: I have endeavored to get the most accurate numbers, but I found that this is an almost an impossible task. Numerous telephone calls to the U.S. Treasury Department and its Bureau of Public Debt and International Capital System resulted in various answers to questions. Why certain numbers on one table do not match to the same titled numbers on another table could not be explained. What is included or excluded in some numbers could not be explained. What should be included to get an accurate "Public Debt" amount was basically unknown. I have pieced together what I could, based on the information that was given to me, and highly footnoted everything. I encourage everyone who has a couple of weeks with nothing to do and a high tolerance for frustration to try to get the numbers themselves. ALSO: The entire system was changed in 2001 so attempting to get comparable numbers prior to that date proved far too frustrating. I'm sure we could go back and get something that had been reported prior to 2001, and I'm sure it would provide some interesting information, but it could not be placed in a table like this as it would probably result in comparing apples to oranges. Also, the most recent year will be in the order of the most securities owned. 1 Source: U.S. Treasury report entitled "Federal Debt," Table FD-1. Reported numbers are for the end of each federal fiscal year, which is September 30. This does not include agency debt, which is incurred by U.S. agencies, such as the Farm Credit System, Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), and Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB). These debts are not backed by the full faith and credit of the United States as are public securities. However, it could be argued that the United States government would not let these debts go unpaid and would honor the debt should the agency go into default. 2 Source: U.S. Treasury report entitled "Ownership of Federal Securities," Table OFS-1. These are public securities that the Federal Reserve Banks are holding and are, therefore, not being held by the public. Therefore, I have removed this amount from the calculation. In addition, amounts called "Nonmarketable" were not removed from the equation. While these securities were not sold on the open market, they were sold through other arrangements and are held primarily by foreign governments. 3 The foreign holdings are from a U.S. Treasury Report entitled "Major Foreign Holders of Treasury Securities." These reports are done monthly. I was told that by taking the amounts reported for September of each year, I would have the end of the fiscal year numbers. In addition, I was told that it was reasonable to take the total Public Debt Securities, subtract the amount of foreign holdings, and assume that what was left is the amount of securities held by United States investors. I could find nothing to confirm these numbers. Also, these numbers include nonmarketable securities. 4 According to the Department of the Treasury, "the country attribution . . . is far from perfect, as the country-level information collected. . . can be distorted due to either chains of intermediaries involved in the custody or management of these securities or to lack of ownership information on bearer securities. The first problem arises when the foreign owner of a U.S. security entrusts the management or safekeeping of a security to an institution that is neither in the United States nor in the foreign owner's country of residence. For example, a resident of Germany may buy a U.S. security and place it in the custody of a Swiss bank. Normally the Swiss bank will then employ a U.S.-resident custodian bank to act as its foreign subcustodian for the security to facilitate settlement and custody operations. When portfolio surveys are conducted, information is collected only from U.S.-resident entities. Thus, the U.S.-resident bank, acting as the subcustodian of the Swiss bank, will report this security on the survey. Because the U.S. bank will typically know only that it is holding the security on behalf of a Swiss bank, it will report the security as Swiss-held. Among the ten countries with the largest holdings of U.S. securities on the most recent survey, five of them -- Belgium, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom -- are financial centers in which substantial amounts of securities owned by residents of other countries are held by custody. Perhaps the greatest distortion in country attribution is reflected in the level of holdings attributed to Luxembourg, a country with an estimated gross domestic product of $27 billion in 2004 that is credited with holdings of $392 billion. The second country attribution is caused by the existence of bearer, or unregistered, securities. The owners of such securities do not have to make themselves known, and typically little or no information is available about them. Long-term bearer securities cannot be issued in the United States, but U.S. firms can and do issue such securities abroad." See Foreign Holdings 2004. 5 Includes the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. 6 Includes the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles, and Panama. 7 These countries were not listed individually in 2008. Any holders were included in “other.” 8 Cayman Islands and Bermuda were previously included under Caribbean Banking Centers. 9 OPEC has been broken out into individual countries.