5.5 Financial instruments consist of the full range of financial contracts made between institutional units. Financial instruments may give rise to financial claims
5.6 A claim is a financial instrument that gives rise to an economic asset that has a counterpart liability. Claims arise from contractual relationships entered into when one institutional unit promises to provide funds or other resources to another in the future. (Usually, funds or resources are supplied at the beginning of the relationship, but not in the case of futures contracts.) The only financial instrument that does not give rise to a claim is gold bullion that is included in monetary gold. (The term claim is used in a different sense in the context of insurance; see paragraph 5.64(b).)
5.7 Each claim is a financial asset that has a corresponding liability. The existence of two parties to a claim means that it can arise in a cross-border situation. Equity is regarded as a claim as it represents a claim of the owner on the residual value of the entity.
5.8 Nonfinancial assets do not have a corresponding liability. For example, emission rights and commodities may be traded on organized markets similar to those of traded financial assets, but do not have a corresponding liability. In contrast, a financial derivative relating to a commodity price does have a counterpart liability and is a financial asset.
5.9 Financial assets consist of claims and the gold bullion component of monetary gold. Financial assets consist of equity and investment fund shares, debt instruments, financial derivatives and employee stock options, and monetary gold.
Paragraph 5.5 - 5.9, Page 78 BPM6