Profit and loss (PL) return

Details about the profit and loss (form PL) return including deadlines, instructions, and contact details.

Key facts

Data to be reported:

Reporting institutions’  and as well as additional items needed for the compilation of the UK National Accounts

Who has to report:

Firms that have over £1 billion total assets (BT40) on their balance sheet (BT) return

Check who needs to submit returns

Data uses:

 Multiple, including:

Frequency:

Quarterly or annually depending on reporter

  • Quarterly – total assets in excess of £1 billion and significant contributor to selected items that feed into the UK National Accounts
  • Annually – total assets in excess of £1 billion
Coverage: Go to reporting criteria to find detailed calculations used to determine eligibility

Deadlines

Firms need to report figures as at the last calendar day of the reporting period.

Go to reporting criteria to download deadlines for all returns for all available years.

Reporting period Reporters impacted Deadline
(5pm UK time)
Concessionary deadline
(5pm UK time)

Deadlines for 2026 will be released in October 2025.

 

Instructions 

Overview of reported data

This return captures reporting institutions’ income and expenditure. It is broken down into two parts. Part 1 covers all transactions, while Part 2 covers transactions with non-residents only. Part 1 covers:

  • Interest receivable and payable broken down by instrument
  • Dividends receivable and payable
  • Fees and commissions receivable broken down by product and total fees and commissions payable
  • Dealing profits including net spread earnings
  • Operating income and expenditure including intra-group transfer pricing
  • Other items affecting profit and loss, but which do not constitute operating income and expenditure for National Accounts purposes
  • Tax

It also captures:

  • Currency breakdowns – sterling, euro, other – with foreign currencies to be reported in sterling
  • The broad economic sectors of counterparties – for example, banks versus UK private sector or UK public sector
  • Provisions for bad and doubtful debts
  • Number of full-time employees

Part 2 covers non-resident breakdowns of Part 1 relevant to the Current Account of the Balance of Payments. This comprises of data on:

  • Interest, dividends, fees & commissions, and intra-group transfer pricing vis-à-vis non-residents
  • Share of profits and losses attributable to non-resident parents, and the share of profits and losses due from non-resident branches and subsidiaries

In every return firms also need to include:

  • their company name
  • their legal entity identifier (LEI) or firm reference number (FRN)
  • the first day of the reporting period
  • the last day of the reporting period

Core documents

You can find detailed instructions in the documents below. 

Profit and Loss (PL) specific documents

Document Notes for PL reporters Last updated
PL definitions (PDF) Includes details of what’s in scope and definitions of PL-box line items
May 2023
Form PL box codes (XLSX) An excel file containing worksheets where a breakdown of the PL box items is given
Mar 2016
Form PL internal validations (XLSX)
PL box line items and the relevant equations to validate their data points are detailed. It also includes equations linking PL to BG box items
Mar 2016
Form PL/BG FAQs (PDF) Answers to frequently asked questions regarding Form PL and BG   Sept 2016

All statistical returns

Document Notes for all reporters Last updated
Classification of accounts guide (PDF)
Includes detailed guidance on how to classify counterparties plus country lists 24 Apr 2024
General notes and definitions (PDF) Includes an introduction to preparing returns and definitions of common terms 24 Apr 2024

Box codes and related documents

These documents were used as part of a previous reporting method (XML) and are no longer applicable to XBRL reporting. They are still available to help firms as we transition to the new ways of working.

Contact us

For help with PL instructions: dsdplteam@bankofengland.co.uk

For help with BEEDS: beedsqueries@bankofengland.co.uk

We aim to reply to emails within 2 working days.

Need a different form?

View all statistical forms

This page was last updated 25 November 2024