The New Zealand Standard Classification of Financial Assets and Liabilities (NZSCFAL) is based on the classification of Financial Assets and Liabilities in the United Nations System of National Accounts 1993 (SNA 1993).
Financial obligations over which ownership rights are enforced by institutional units, individually or collectively, and from which economic benefits may be derived by their owners by holding them, or using them over a period of time, differing, except for monetary gold and Special Drawing Rights, from other assets in that there is a counterpart liability on the part of another institutional unit.
Financial obligations over which ownership rights are enforced by institutional units, individually or collectively and which are economic costs to the owners holding them. All financial liabilities have a counterpart financial asset which is held by another institutional unit.