-
1 week ago | 
omfif.org | Burhan Khadbai
The European Investment Bank has been at the forefront of guiding and advancing the green and sustainable bond market, becoming the first issuer of a green bond back in 2007. Now the EIB has met another significant milestone by issuing the largest transaction so far under a new regulation for green bonds, dubbed the premium standard for the market.
-
3 weeks ago | 
omfif.org | Burhan Khadbai
As Europe embarks on ambitious plans to boost its spending in defence and security in the light of curtailed support from the US, the big question is how this will be funded in a sustainable manner. This was discussed at OMFIF Sovereign Debt Institute’s 2025 Public sector debt summit earlier this month in Paris.
-
1 month ago | 
omfif.org | Burhan Khadbai
Wider spreads and volatility have been named as the biggest concerns for borrowers in the year ahead, according to OMFIF’s 2025 Public sector debt outlook survey. The annual survey of global sovereign, supranational and agency borrowers provides a detailed outlook on funding programmes, sustainable issuance, primary dealers, distribution of bonds, role of non-banks and more. This year’s survey was completed by 32 SSAs, comprising some of the biggest and most prestigious issuers in the market.
-
1 month ago | 
omfif.org | Burhan Khadbai
Despite risks stemming from US President Trump’s administration, sovereign issuers in Latin America have made a record start in 2025 for their funding in the international debt capital markets. The market for sovereign issuers in this region was discussed at OMFIF’s Sovereign Debt Institute’s Latin America sovereign debt outlook in February 2025.
-
2 months ago | 
omfif.org | Burhan Khadbai
The UK Debt Management Office’s first public sale of the year impressed with an unprecedented level of demand despite a huge sell-off in gilts over recent months. On 21 January, the UK DMO raised £8.5bn via a syndicated re-opening of the 4.4% 2040 gilt led by Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Nomura and RBC Capital Markets.
-
2 months ago | 
omfif.org | Burhan Khadbai
Greece’s first publicly sold bond transaction in January 2025 was by far the biggest statement in its journey over the past decade to regain trust and credibility with investors in the capital markets. Not only did Greece achieve a record order book in terms of size at over €40.5bn, it was also the biggest by the number of investors with over 270 accounts submitting orders.
-
Jan 1, 2025 | 
omfif.org | Burhan Khadbai
A combination of factors will result in spreads continuing to widen well into 2025 for the European public sector bond market. These include high supply, geopolitical risk, political uncertainty and the end of the European Central Bank’s quantitative tightening programme. At an OMFIF event hosted in partnership with LBBW, funding officials and fixed-income portfolio managers examined the outlook for European sovereign, supranational and agency borrowers for the year ahead.
-
Dec 12, 2024 | 
omfif.org | Burhan Khadbai
Increasing international demand – particularly from Asian investors – is boosting the status of Europe’s safe assets. This comes as a result of a scarcity of high-quality, liquid securities and the desire to diversify away from dollar-based investments. The development of the investor base for European safe assets was one of the topics discussed at OMFIF Sovereign Debt Institute’s roundtable on Team Europe’s borrowing outlook for 2025 in Luxembourg, in partnership with LBBW.
-
Nov 28, 2024 | 
omfif.org | Burhan Khadbai
Repurchase agreements are an obscure but important part of the bond market and wider financial system, with trillions of dollars’ worth of securities traded every day. The rapid growth of the green and sustainable bond market issued by sovereigns in recent years has led to the slow emergence of a repo market for these transactions.
-
Nov 25, 2024 | 
omfif.org | Burhan Khadbai
German regional borrowers are bracing themselves for what will be a challenging year ahead to fund their issuance programmes in the capital markets. Elevated spreads and an upcoming federal election, likely to trigger reform of the fiscal debt brake, add to the uncertainty. The outlook for the German regional bond market was explored at the European sub-sovereign forum, hosted by OMFIF’s Sovereign Debt Institute in Frankfurt in November 2024.
