International banking activity weakened in Q4 2016. Cross-border claims dropped by $281 billion in the quarter, but were nevertheless up 1.9% in the year to end-December 2016. The decline was driven primarily by reduced lending to non-banks and unrelated banks, while intragroup positions picked up. Trends diverged between advanced economies and emerging market economies (EMEs). The weakness in Q4 2016 mainly reflected a fall in crossborder lending to advanced economies, while aggregated claims on EMEs remained relatively stable.
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