Foreign holdings of US Treasury securities by reporting location in August 2026

The two largest reported positions moved in different directions

Japan’s reported balance was USD 1,068.3 billion in August 2026, down USD 115.6 billion from August 2025. The UK balance rose USD 108.2 billion to USD 1,009.5 billion. These figures come from the same end-of-month table, and the changes are differences between balances. Source 1

Custody location can obscure the ultimate holder

The Treasury says the data are collected mainly from US-based custodians and broker-dealers. A security held in a third-country custodial account can be attributed to that location. The geographic rows describe where the holdings are reported, so they have limited precision as estimates of ultimate ownership. Source 1 Source 2

Foreign official holdings form a subset of the total

The Treasury reports USD 3,755.6 billion in foreign official holdings in August 2026, about 40.2% of the total. The remainder includes other foreign holdings. The foreign official row is an ownership-category subtotal across the portfolio and is already included in the grand total. Source 1

Holdings and transactions measure separate things

The monthly release publishes separate data on purchases and sales. Table 5 records the amount outstanding in each reporting group at month-end. Use the holdings table to compare balances and the transaction data to answer a purchase or sale question. Source 1 Source 2

Sources

• US Treasury International Capital, Table 5 major foreign holders
• US Treasury August 2026 TIC release and custodial-data explanation