Generally the classification is ordered in terms of liquidity, moving from the most liquid asset to the least liquid asset.
The classification is split into a financial assets division and a financial liabilities division. The letters "FA" at the start of a classification code indicate a financial asset while the letters "FL" indicate a financial liability.
Financial assets and financial liabilities form the two sides of a financial transaction. The classification has been structured to show the relationship between financial assets and financial liabilities by giving the same code number to each item that occurs in both financial assets and financial liabilities. For example, household mortgages appear in financial assets as FA1431 and in financial liabilities as FL1431. There are two exceptions to this rule in subdivision FA11 monetary gold and special drawing rights and in class FA1212 foreign currency. For these items there are no corresponding liabilities and accordingly there is no subdivision FL11 and no class FL1212.
The standard classification of financial assets and liabilities is a hierarchical classification of four levels. Level 1 of the classification has two categories, level 2 of the classification has 13 categories, level 3 has 27 categories and level 4 has 30 categories.
The full classification is available in the 'Available Files' section on the main page.