Overview of sources and methods

15.36    The compilation of the financial accounts and financial balance sheets are mainly based on administrative data collected by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) under the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001, and ABS statistical surveys. Of particular importance are the ABS Survey of Financial Information (SFI) and the Survey of International Investment (SII), both of which are conducted quarterly. Other data sources are used to supplement the ABS and APRA sources, such as market capitalisation for different sector and subsector share issuance from the Australian Securities Exchange; information on Commonwealth Government from ledgers obtained from Government Finance Statistics; and bond price indexes from private financial market analysts.