Since most of the increase in cash is among MNCs, it is first necessary to understand how MNCs differ from other firms. These differences may help us understand the motivations behind firms’ cash holdings and the factors that contribute to the rise in cash balances.14 Total cash to assets is approximately the same in the full sample and the MNC sub sample (22.5% versus 21.1%, see Table 2). The MNCs have significantly higher foreign cash (8.9% versus 1.5% in the full sample) and less domestic cash, with MNCs holding 42% of their cash abroad.15 Since MNCs are larger, the fraction of cash held abroad is even larger when we look at total cash (weighting each dollar equally opposed to each firm equally). In this case, 64% of the MNCs’ cash is held abroad. This ratio rises from 54% to 74% over our sample period. Foreign cash holdings are concentrated in a subset of MNCs, an issue we explore later.