Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services

intermediation services indirectly measured is included 
as a memorandum item to EBOPS; another 
memorandum item, financial services including 
FISIM, identifies the total of financial services directly 
and indirectly measured. 
3.111. Included in financial services (excluding FISIM) 
are, for example: 
(a) Explicit and implicit commissions and fees 
associated with financial transactions, such as:  
(i) 
Deposit taking and lending, including 
mortgage and non-mortgage loan services 
for business and personal purposes; 
(ii)  Letters of credit, bankers’ acceptances, 
lines of credit and other similar instruments; 
(iii) Financial 
leasing; 
(iv) Factoring; 
(v)  Financial derivative transactions; 
(vi) Underwriting, placement of issues, 
brokerage and redemption of securities, 
including commissions related to the income 
payments related to securities; 
(vii)  Clearing of payments; 
(b)  Financial advisory services; 
(c)  Custody services for financial assets or bullion; 
(d)  Financial asset management services; 
(e)  Merger and acquisition services; 
(f)  Corporate finance and venture capital services; 
(g)  Credit card and other credit granting services; 
(h)  The spread on foreign exchange transactions; 
(i)  Administration of financial markets; 
(j)  Credit rating;  
(k)  Service charges on purchases of IMF resources;  
(l) Charges associated with undrawn balances 
under standby or extended arrangements with the IMF. 
3.112. Excluded  from  financial services are, for 
example: 
(a) Interest earned on deposits, loans, financial 
leases and debt securities (this is investment income, not 
included in services);
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(b) Dividends earned; 
(c) Life insurance and pension intermediation 
services (included in life insurance and pension 
funding); 
(d)  Other insurance services; 
(e) Non-financial advisory services provided by 
banks (such as management advisory services, which are 
included in business and management consultancy and 
public relations services); 
(f)  Gains and losses made on purchase and sales of 
securities and financial derivatives on own account;  
(g) FISIM. 
3.113. In addition to explicit fees that may be charged 
for the conversion of foreign exchange, implicit service 
fees for foreign exchange transactions are valued as the 
spread between the mid-point rate and the buying or 
selling rate. Not all fees are invoiced separately; they 
may be included indistinguishably with the financial 
transactions to which they relate. An example is the 
invoiced price of a security that includes a charge for the 
brokerage service provided, as well as charges for the 
international transfer of foreign currency. Although such 
services are difficult to record, if possible estimates 
should be included in financial services. Note that fees 
paid by non-bank agents may be directly paid on 
accounts held abroad, or they may be included 
indistinguishably with related financial transactions. 
3.114. Transactions in financial derivatives may take 
place through an intermediary. In this case, implicit or 
explicit service charges may be involved. The present 
Manual  recommends that, where charges are explicitly 
made, they should be included in financial services, and 
where such services are not explicitly charged, FISIM 
should be estimated for inclusion in the memorandum 
item  financial intermediation services indirectly 
measured, in line with the revised treatment of financial 
derivatives in balance of payments and national accounts 
statistics.
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  But see the discussion on FISIM in box 5. 
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  See International Monetary Fund, Financial Derivatives: A 
Supplement to the Fifth Edition (1993) of the Balance of 
Payments Manual (Washington, D.C., 2000). 

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