Report highlights include:

• EU Member States and the UK issued EUR 1,019.3 bn in bonds and bills throughout 1Q24, which represents an increase of 7.4% (YoY) compared to 1Q23. The non-Eurozone countries had the largest increase in total (bond and bill) issuance during 1Q24— UK gilts gross issuance rose 34% YoY compared to 1Q23.
• Record trading volumes in European (EU+UK) government bonds during Q1 2024, according to TraX data from MarketAxess. The traded amount in Q1 2024 was the highest average daily trading volume in European government bonds since records began in 2014, with trading volume increasing 20.3% QoQ and 26.7% YoY.
• Outstanding amount of European ESG government bonds reached EUR 475.9 bn during 1Q24 with volumes driven by new green bonds issued by France (EUR 7 bn), Germany (EUR 6 bn), the UK (EUR 5.5 bn), and Italy (EUR 3.7 bn). The European Commission issued additionally EUR 5.8 bn in NGEU Green bonds.
• There was a net loss of 1 primary dealer in Europe (including the EU) from Q4 2023 to Q1 2024. There were 3 exits and 2 entries of banks to the European Primary Dealer system. Czechia, Greece, and Slovakia each had 1 primary dealer exit. Bulgaria and the UK each had 1 bank entering the local primary dealer system.
• During 1Q24 there was 1 credit rating upgrade in Portugal. According to the most recent data, Europe saw 1 credit rating downgrade in 2Q 2024 in France. This follows 3 upgrades and 1 downgrade in 4Q23.
• Roadmap to DLT Bond Issuance: AFME has published a report titled “Scaling Digital Bonds” which sets a roadmap to help Sovereign, Supranational and Agency (SSA) issuers gradually implement issuance of digital bonds with the use of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). Global issuance of DLT-based SSA bonds up to March 2024 (USD $980mn) already exceeded the total for the whole of 2023 by 204%.

AFME’s roadmap is laid out in three phases: experimentation, scaling, and maturity. A summary of the roadmap is in this quarterly data report. AFME’s DLT roadmap report is available here.