Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the viewpoint of the Balance of Payments and the International Investment Position (IIP) share a same conceptual framework given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Balance of Payments is a statistical statement that systematically summarises, for a specific time span, the economic transactions of an economy with the rest of the world (transactions between residents and non-residents) and the IIP compiles for a specific date, such as the end of a year, the value of the stock of each financial asset and liability as defined in the standard components of the Balance of Payments. We will not deal in this note with other relevant statistical concepts for operations overseas, particularly for financial institutions, such as exposure (foreign claims, international claims, etc.), which belong to the realm of the BIS statistics.3 Sections 2, 3 and 4 give an overview of FDI definitions, concepts and recommendations adopted by the IMF’s Balance of Payments Manual (5th Edition, 1993) and by the OECD’s Benchmark Definition of Foreign Direct Investment (3rd Edition, 1996). Both provide operational guidance and detailed international standards for recording flows and stocks related to FDI. Section 5 gives a quick overview of trends in FDI inward flows and stocks for the period 1980-2001. Section 6 reports on onward FDI flows for Spain, with particular attention to the financial sector. Finally a brief description of the main available sources of FDI is found in an annex.