This chapter prescribes forms and procedures agencies use to prepare reports for submission to the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) relating to U.S. Government grants, loans, credits, and contingent liabilities on loans, credits, and other payment scheduling agreements involving foreigners.

Section 4510--Scope and Applicability

The Secretary of the Treasury requires the information agencies provide to fulfill reporting responsibilities to the Congress. In addition, the reported information provides data for:

• The annual "U.S. Government Foreign Credit Exposure" report,
• Submissions to the OECD's CRS, and
• Assistance to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in preparing budget estimates.

The provisions of this chapter apply to all departments and agencies of the executive branch of the U.S. Government, including Government corporations subject to the Government Corporation Control Act, that:

• Extend foreign grants,
• Authorize, commit, or have outstanding, loans or other transactions creating foreign indebtedness to the U.S. Government, and
• Have contingent liabilities under agreements pertaining to loans, credits, or other payment scheduling agreements involving foreigners.

Treasury requests that agencies of the legislative and judicial branches of Government also submit reports so that Treasury financial reports will include all such transactions and accounts of the Federal Government. Agencies are exempt from reporting provisions applicable to grants where total foreign grant activity is less than $100,000 per fiscal year.

Section 4515--Authority

Section 114 of the Budget and Accounting Procedures Act of 1950 (31 U.S.C. 3513a) requires the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare reports to inform the President, the Congress, and the public on financial operations of the U.S. Government and provides that each executive agency must furnish the Secretary of the Treasury with information relating to the agency's financial condition and operations as the Secretary may require.

The following Congressional reports launched the Foreign Credit Reporting System (FCRS) and the annual Treasury publication, "U.S. Government Foreign Credit Exposure":

• The House Committee Report on Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill 1992, and
• The Conference Report 101-344, dated November 11, 1989.

Data collected also will provide information for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) Creditor Reporting System (CRS), which has annual, semiannual, and quarterly reporting requirements.

Section 4520--Terms and Definitions

Claim-An assertion of a right to payment. A lender may file a claim to assert its right to that portion of the unpaid balance due on a defaulted loan that is guaranteed or insured by the Government or to the remaining portion of a guarantee not already recovered by a lender.

Credit-Any amount for which there exists a specific obligation for repayment. Includes loan and other transfer agreements that give rise to specific obligations to repay over a period of time, usually with interest. May include grants, but only where reference is to "tied aid credits," as defined by the OECD Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits.

Creditor/Lender-One who provides money or resources and to whom payment is owed, including the U.S. Government, Federal agencies, or private financial institutions, under a specific credit agreement.

Debt-Refers to an amount of money or property that has been determined to be owed to the U.S. Government from any person, organization, or entity, other than another Federal agency. It includes amounts owed on direct and guaranteed loans, and all other amounts due the U.S. from fees, duties, leases, rents, royalties, services, sales of goods or services, overpayments, fines, penalties, damages, interest, taxes, forfeitures, and other sources.

Default Debt Service-The failure to meet any obligation or term of a credit agreement, grant, or contract. A payment that is overdue or in arrears is technically "in default," since, by virtue of nonpayment, the borrower has failed to abide by the terms and conditions of the credit. In practical terms, when a guaranteed loan or credit is considered "in default" varies by agency.

Disbursement-Occurs when a creditor places resources, such as goods or funds, at the disposal of a borrower through a cash payment or creation of a line-of-credit and the borrower draws upon it. The term "utilized" may be used when credit extended is other than currency.

Insurance-A legally binding agreement to insure exporters, investors, and lenders against specific risks during specified periods. Export-Import Bank insurance covers commercial and political risks of nonpayment of export obligations. Overseas Private Investment Corporation insurance covers transfer and political risks associated with foreign investments.

Maturity Date-The date at which a debt is due to be paid in full.

Official or Private Obligor-Agencies must classify obligors as "official" or "private" according to the following principles:

• Official obligors (borrowers) or guarantors are:
  
  - Central governments or their departments (ministries).
  
  - Political subdivisions such as states, provinces, departments, and municipalities.
  
  - Foreign central banks.
  
  - Autonomous institutions (such as corporations, development banks, railways, utilities, etc.) where:
  
  (1) The budget of the institution is subject to the approval of the government of the recipient country;
  
  (2) The government owns more than 50 percent of the voting stock or more than half of the members of the board of directors are government representatives;
  
  AND
  
  (3) In the case of default, the government or central bank would become liable for the debt of the institution.
  
  - Any official multinational organization.
   
• Private obligors (borrowers) or guarantors are defined as obligors other than official.

Principal Outstanding-The amount disbursed and not repaid that includes principal amount in arrears.

Repayment Agreement-An agreement between a borrower and a lender that establishes the terms and conditions governing the recovery of a debt.

Reporting Date-The date as of which agencies must report historical debt service data, status information, and scheduled debt service data.

Reschedule-

• An OECD term for the extinguishing of debt owed under all or part of existing credits and the creation of a new and separate credit or credits, which normally in the aggregate are of volume equal to the amount of the total debt being extinguished. Rescheduling normally is done in connection with facilitating repayment, although it is not required.
  
  Multiple rescheduling occurs whenever debt owed under all or part of more than one existing credit is extinguished under a single rescheduling action, whether or not a single new credit results.
   
• A Paris Club term for a form of debt reorganization in which scheduled debt service payments falling due in a specific interval are consolidated, resulting in a new credit with a new payment schedule.¹

¹Reporting agencies are reminded to adhere to NAC Action 82-285 regarding the procedures and reporting of foreign debt.

Signature Date-The date the loan, guarantee, or insurance agreement (specifying the amount, financial terms and conditions, and the purpose of the transaction) was signed or otherwise made known to the recipient.²

²DCD/DAC/TD/ECG(90)1 page 76, paragraph 362, refers to this as "commitment" date.

Sovereign-Refers to obligations entered into by the state. They may carry the "full faith and credit" of the central government. These often include transactions guaranteed by the Central Bank, Treasury, or Ministry of Finance. On a country-by-country basis, other institutions also may be designated, by law or by custom, as sovereign institutions, acting on behalf of the state.

Writeoff-Occurs when an authorized official determines that a debt will not be repaid. Statutory authority may be required to write off debts owed by foreign governments. (See Forgive and Reductions.)

For other terms and definitions related to this chapter, please view the TFM Glossary.

Section 4525--Quarterly Reports

Agencies submit data via the Internet quarterly using the following seven reports:

• Direct Long-Term Credits History (DH),
• Guarantees and Insurance of Long-Term Credits History (GH),
• Direct Long-Term Credits Status (DS),
• Guarantees and Insurance of Long-Term Credits Status (GS),
• Aggregated Data on the Status of Direct Short-Term Credits and Guarantees and Insurance of Short-Term Credits (AS),
• Direct Long-Term Credits Scheduled Payments (DP), and
• Guarantees and Insurance of Long-Term Credits Scheduled Payments (GP).

Submit the quarterly reports, using the formats and instructions provided in Appendix 1, as follows:

• DS, GS, and AS formats for all direct credits, insurance contracts, and guarantees.
• DP and GP formats for scheduled payments on any new contracts committed during the previous quarter (or any changes in existing payment schedules).
• DH and GH formats for transactions occurring during the respective calendar quarter (the applicable quarter will be determined from the reporting date). The Foreign Credit Reporting System (FCRS) will calculate calendar year historical data by summing the quarterly reports.

Upload the quarterly reports in the prescribed formats via the FCRS File Upload module, Upload Agency Files screen.

The quarterly reports are due on or before the due date. The due date is 45 days after the quarter-end reporting date. If the due date falls on a U.S. national holiday or weekend, the next business day is the due date. The data will be loaded into the FCRS within 3 workdays after the Request to Move Uploaded Files into Staging.Application.

Agencies must complete the quarterly data editing and approval process in the FCRS within 2 weeks after receiving notification that the reporting period data are available for editing via notification on the FCRS File Upload module, Batch Statistics screen. Agency personnel should follow the instructions in the "Foreign Credit Reporting System (FCRS) Web Site Overview and Data Editing Guide for Agency Users." Agencies may request additional time beyond the 2 weeks, if needed.

4525.10--Submitting Previously Unreported Information

Agencies that have not reported on loans, guarantees, or insurance contracts previously, should submit information for the current quarter as indicated above in Section 4525. In addition, status (DS and GS) and history (DH and GH) reports for the previous 5 years should be reported separately. Contact the FCRS Data Administrator (see the Contacts page) for instructions.

Section 4530--Entering Data

Provide data as ASCII characters with right-justified integers in all fields except dates, interest rates, calendar years, country codes, names of borrowers, percentages, program codes, agency identification numbers, and Treasury transaction numbers.

Agencies unable to provide ASCII formatted files may substitute Comma Separated Values (CSV) files in the proper formats and field lengths. If submitting the optional CSV format, the character positioning is unnecessary; however, the field length is critical. Fields must be separated by commas and string values must be enclosed in double quotes (for example, "MyValue").

Agencies must use the specified formats to support the system, to allow timely completion of agency data editing, and to complete the reports. In addition, they must verify that the ASCII data are correctly positioned and complete using an editor.

Agencies must retain the underlying "raw" data and be prepared to make this data available to OMB or Treasury, if requested.

4530.10--Amounts

Report amounts on a cash basis rather than an accrual basis, in accord with the nature of the item, per the following conventions:

• Use unsigned positive integers without comma separators or decimal points (for example, no "," or "." symbols in amount fields); if negative, use a leading minus sign,
• Do not use a currency symbol (for example, no "$" symbol), and
• Round the amount to the nearest whole U.S. dollar or dollar equivalent.

4530.15--Dates

Enter dates numerically in century, year, month, and day sequence. For example, "20020331" represents March 31, 2002.

4530.20--Interest Rates

Enter interest rates as real numbers with 2 integer digits, a period, and 3 decimal digits. For example, report 6 1/2 percent as "06.500".

4530.25--Calendar Year

Agencies no longer need to enter the calendar year. This information is calculated from the Reporting Date on the DH and GH files.

4530.30--Country Codes

Use the appropriate 2- or 3-character country codes taken from the list in Appendix 2.³ This information, and all other baseline information, is accepted initially and changed only from the status reports DS and GS.

³The codes are based on Federal Information Processing Standards Publication (FIPS PUB) 10-4, Countries, Dependencies, Areas of Special Sovereignty, and Their Principal Administrative Divisions, as amended by FIPS PUB 10-4 Change Notices; Department of State, Office of the Geographer, Guidance Bulletins, and information from the Office of the Geographer. Certain codes have been added to alleviate unusual reporting problems. (See www.state.gov/www/regions/independent_states.html, www.state.gov/www/regions/dependencies.html, http://www.state.gov/countries.)

4530.35--Borrower Name

Report the borrower name in its entirety if possible. However, because of space limitations, standard abbreviations and truncations are acceptable.

4530.40--Percentages

Report percentages as real numbers to the nearest tenth of a percent. Include the decimal point to separate decimal values. For example, report 95.5 percent as "95.5"; report 80 percent as "80.0".

4530.45--Program Codes

Use the appropriate program codes from the list of program names and codes in Appendix 3. This information is accepted initially and changed only from the status reports DS and GS.

4530.50--Agency Identification Number

Report the agency identification number that the agency assigned to the loan, guarantee, or insurance agreement. The agency must use this number consistently in future reports. This information is critical to matching the history DH and GH and scheduled payments DP and GP records with the applicable status record DS and GS reports in order to create a complete contract.

4530.55--Treasury Transaction Number

Report the Treasury transaction number that the agency assigned to identify the loan, guarantee, or insurance agreement for OECD CRS purposes. The Treasury transaction number consists of a 2-digit numeric commitment-year identifier, a sequential 4-digit numeric identifier, and a 2-character alphanumeric extension, if needed. Verify that leading zeros appear in the Treasury transaction number for credits committed in calendar year 2000 and beyond. For example, "021234" indicates a commitment in calendar year 2002 (the leading zero requires a text field). Agencies must maintain Treasury transaction numbers used on records submitted as of December 31, 1994, as long as there is any activity related to the particular loan, guarantee, or insurance agreement, including claims outstanding. For agencies reporting Officially Supported Export Credit transactions directly to the OECD or Berne Union on Form 1 C, the first 6 digits of the Treasury transaction number must coincide with the CRS identification number used. Agencies must use the assigned Treasury transaction number consistently in future reports as long as there is any activity related to the particular loan, guarantee, or insurance agreement, including claims outstanding. This information is accepted initially only from the status reports DS and GS.

Section 4535--FCRS Edits

The FCRS runs edits on individual records under the following "reasonableness" assumptions. In each status record:

• The cumulative amount of principal committed should equal the sum of the cumulative amounts of principal canceled, undisbursed, and disbursed for any direct credit or guaranteed loan.
• The cumulative amount of principal disbursed should equal the sum of the cumulative amounts of principal outstanding, repaid, rescheduled, and reduced for any direct credit or guaranteed loan.
• Amounts in arrears (or outstanding) 1 day or more should be greater than or equal to the equivalent amount in arrears (or outstanding) 90 days or more.
• Principal in arrears 1 day or more should not exceed principal outstanding on any direct credit.

For any direct credit or guaranteed loan:

• The sum of historical amounts in a given category should not exceed the cumulative amounts in that category on the status record.
• The historical amounts in a given category during the preceding quarter should not exceed 10 percent of the difference between the cumulative amounts in that category on the status records for the current and preceding quarters.
• The sum of scheduled principal repayments in the projection records should not exceed the sum of principal undisbursed plus principal outstanding (minus principal in arrears 1 day or more on direct credits) on the status record.
• The sum of scheduled principal repayments in the projection records should not be less than the amount of principal outstanding (minus principal in arrears 1 day or more on direct credits) in the status record.

If there are valid reasons for not applying the above tests to specific records, provide detailed explanations of these reasons in a separate correspondence.

Note: Do not omit any relevant credits, guarantees, or insurance contracts. If the agency has reported contracts, it must close out the contracts before removing them from the inventory of active records for the agency.

Section 4540--Filenames

Compose filenames using the agency identifier, the 2-digit type code indicated in the format, a 4-digit reporting date, and the text extension. For example, the Export-Import Bank would name the direct credit history file as of December 31, 2002, as "EDH0212.txt".

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Contacts

Direct inquiries concerning this chapter to:

Office of International Debt Policy
Office of International Affairs
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.
Washington, DC 20220
Telephone: 202-622-7825

In lieu of sending quarterly reports via e-mail to the following addresses, access to verified agency data will be provided via the Foreign Credit Reporting System to:

bertram.wolfe@do.treas.gov Office of International Debt Policy, FCRS Data Administrator

patricia.mosley@bea.doc.gov U.S. Department of Commerce/BEA, BE-58

wmccormick@usaid.gov U.S. Agency for International Development, Policy and Program Coordination

 

Appendices Listing

Appendix No.	Title
1	Data Formats and Instructions
2	Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Country Codes
3	Program Codes
4	Purpose Codes

 

Summary of Updates

Section No.	Section Title	Summary of Change
All	All	Formatting updated
4520	Terms and Definitions	Moved several terms to TFM Glossary and added link
	Appendices	Removed Appendices from PDF and added links