U.S. banks continued to cut exposure to the U.K. during the fourth quarter of 2016.

As of Dec. 31, 2016, U.S. bank exposure to the U.K. was down 8.7% from the linked quarter, to $568.34 billion. About 77% of the industry's total exposure to the U.K. stems from the eight "large financial institutions": JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp. and Bank of New York Mellon Corp.

Meanwhile, total exposure to Europe, including the U.K., fell 4.4% to $1.657 trillion.

Banks report exposure to countries outside the U.S. on Form FFIEC 009a if that exposure exceeds certain thresholds. The FFIEC includes a variety of claims in its definition of exposure, including deposit balances, securities, federal funds sold and loans, along with many other types of assets.

Out of the eight "large financial institutions" included in the FFIEC E.16 country exposure lending survey, JPMorgan had the highest exposure to the U.K. at $94.34 billion. Citigroup followed next with an exposure of $84.86 billion, although this was down 27.1% from the third quarter of 2016.

Click here to view the Dec. 31, 2016 FFIEC 009a report and here to view the E.16 report. Click here to download historical reports from the FFIEC website.