OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2021

Annex B. OECD 2020 Survey on Liquidity in Government Bond Secondary Markets

Abstract

This annex belongs to the OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook 2021.

Thirty-six of the 37 OECD countries responded to this survey.

Countries which responded to the survey but did not provide comments to a question may not appear in the table of answers.

Source: 2020 Survey on Liquidity in Secondary Government Bond Markets by the OECD Working Party on Debt Management.

Table B.1. Domestic currency bond lines

	How many domestic currency bond lines exist	With between USD 5 billion and USD 10 billion on issue	With greater than USD 10 billion on issue
Australia	34 (26 nominal, 8 linkers)	Using Australian dollars (AUD)/USD 0.6903:6 (5 nominal, 1 linker)	20 (all nominal)
Austria	27	9	14
Belgium	Total: 61 Obligations Linéaires (OLO)s: 30EUR Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN): 31	10 OLO lines	21 OLO lines at EURUSD exchange rate 1.1700
Canada	52 bond lines are outstanding, covering the 2, 3, 5, 10, 30, and 50-year sectors.	25 bonds have between USD 5 billion and USD 10 billion outstanding (including inflation adjustments for real return bonds).	20 bonds have greater than USD 10 billion outstanding (including inflation adjustments for real return bonds).
Colombia	There are 4 lines of zero coupon bonds, 10 lines of nominal bonds in Colombian Pesos (COP) and 9 lines of Real Value Unit (RVU) inflation-linked bonds.	7 lines of nominal bonds in COP and 1 line of RVU inflation-linked bonds.	None.
Czech Republic	Bond lines as of 30. 06.2020 Czech government bonds denominated in Czech koruna (CZK) T-bonds: 23 bonds (3 lines of floaters, 1 line of zero coupon bond and 19 lines of fixed-coupon bonds)T-bills: 7 lines Retail lines Retail bonds: 15 lines (5 lines of inflation-linked retail bonds, 9 lines of fixed-coupon retail bonds and 1 line of variable coupon retail bond) Czech government bonds denominated in foreign currency T-bonds denominated in EUR: 43 lines (2 lines of fixed coupon Eurobonds, 1 line of zero-coupon government bond in EUR issued according on domestic market under Czech law) T-bonds denominated in JPY (1 line of fixed coupon bond denominated in Yen – private placement)	3 lines	0 lines
Denmark	12	4	4
Estonia	4 (3 Treasury Bills and 1 Eurobond)	None	None
Finland	21	16	0
France	We have 70 lines (nominal + inflation linked).	6 lines.	61 lines.
Germany	At the end of June, there existed 77 lines of securities: 4 inflation-linked, 61 nominal bonds, 12 lines of bills.	9	65
Greece	47 lines
Hungary	24 wholesale fix bonds, 4 wholesale floaters, and 99 retail bonds.	None	None
Iceland	10 lines (6 nominal bonds and 4 inflation linked)	None	None
Ireland	30 (18 fixed, 10 amortising, 2 floating)	13	5
Israel	33	(USDILS = 3.47 ; USD 5 billion = Israeli shekel (ILS) 17.5 billion) 7	0
Italy	138 lines: 21 lines of bills, 80 lines of nominal bonds, 5 lines of zero coupon bonds, 10 lines of floaters, 12 lines of linkers, 10 lines of linkers tailored to retail investors.	31 lines: 19 lines of bills, 1 line of floaters, 1 line of nominal bonds, 3 lines of linkers, 7 lines of linkers tailored to retail investors	101 lines: 79 lines of nominal bonds, 4 lines of zero coupon bonds, 9 lines of floaters, 8 lines of linkers, 1 line of linkers tailored to retail investors.
Japan	524 lines(as of end of June,2020)	50 lines (as of end of June, 2020)	275 lines (as of end of June, 2020)
Korea	56 lines of nominal bonds, 6 lines of linkers (by August 2020)	One of each nominal bond and linker (by August 2020)	55 lines of nominal bonds, 5 lines of linkers (by August 2020)
Latvia	As of 30 June 2020 there were 7 domestic (LV ISIN) and 10 International Securities Identification Number (XS ISIN) outstanding in EUR.	None.	None.
Lithuania	Domestic market: 20 nominal bonds (5 of which are on-the-run bonds), 52 retail bonds (of which 1 is on-the-run).International markets (only in euros): 11 nominal bonds	0 (zero)	0 (zero)
Luxembourg	10	None	None
Mexico	The Ministry of Finance has 93 lines in total. 16 lines in the M Bonos markets (Fixed Rate Bonds) and 9 lines in the Udibonos market (Inflation Linked Bonds), 27 (lines of zero coupon bonds, 42 (lines of floaters).	12 lines.	11 lines
Netherlands	25	21	19
New Zealand	13 bond lines in total: 9 Nominal bonds 4 inflation-indexed bonds	5	None of the lines
Norway	9	3	0
Poland	33 lines in marketable bonds 321 lines in 7 types of bond on the retail market	18 lines	2 lines
Portugal	We have 26 domestic currency bonds. 15 lines of nominal bonds, 7 lines of floaters and 4 retail bonds.	On the issue date, one line (a nominal bond).	On the issue date, none of them.
Slovak Republic	22	0	0
Slovenia	There are 20 domestic currency government bonds.	None.	None.
Spain	57	4	50
Sweden	10 lines of Nominal government bonds 9 lines of Inflation-linked government bonds 8 lines of Public bonds in foreign currencies 1 lottery bond	Nominal government bonds: 4	Nominal government bonds: 2
Switzerland	24	1 (USD 5.3 bn)	None
Turkey	As of December 31, 2020, the following government debt securities are traded in secondary market (Borsa Istanbul Debt Securities Market): 79 Turkish Lira (TRY) denominated bonds and bills 9 USD denominated government bonds 9 EUR denominated government bonds 17 Gold denominated government bonds	One of the EUR denominated debt security has a total issue value between USD 5 billion and USD 10 billion (5.08 billion USD equivalent) The rest of all above domestic debt securities’ issue volume is less than 5 billion USD	None of the above domestic debt securities have issue value greater than USD 10 billion
United Kingdom	There are 51 conventional lines and 28 index-linked, totalling 79.	Three conventional lines and one index-linked. Calculations exclude Debt Management Office (DMO) holdings.	48 conventional lines and 27 index-linked. Calculations exclude DMO holdings.
United States	For “on-the-run” benchmarks there are 16 total: 7 nominal, 3 inflation-linked, 1 floater, and 5 bills. In addition, as of June 30, there were 392 “off-the-run” securities outstanding: 306 nominal, 41 inflation-linked, 7 floaters, and 38 bills.	Among the on-the-runs, there was 1 with $5-10B on issue: the 30-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) was issued in February, with $8 billion on issue (this was before the August reopening that increased the issue by $7 billion). Among off-the-runs, there are 8 lines with $5-10B on issues.	All remaining on-the-runs and off-the-runs.

Note from New Zealand: Converted from New Zealand Dollars to USD.

Source from New Zealand: https://debtmanagement.treasury.govt.nz/about-us/snapshot

Table B.2. Q2 Do you believe it is necessary/important to maintain certain volumes in specific maturity segments in your country?

	Yes	No	Comment
Australia	X		The Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) has a stated commitment to maintain liquidity in the futures baskets (in Australia there exist 3 year, 10 year and 20 year futures contracts, with a new 5 year contract to be created soon). The AOFM ensures there is sufficient issuance into bonds which (will) form the ‘basket’ of bonds which underlie the futures contracts.
Austria	X		A certain minimum size in the main benchmark bonds is important in order to support secondary market liquidity.
Belgium	X		In order to create and maintain a sufficiently liquid full curve, volumes issued in all lines should reach sufficient levels.
Canada	X		Benchmark size ranges for each sector is announced in the annual Debt Management Strategy. Due to much higher issuance levels in core sectors, particularly in 10-year and 30-year bonds, the benchmark bond target ranges have been increased relative to fiscal year 2019-20. The ranges serve as a temporary guide to the potential final size of each benchmark in the context of evolving borrowing requirements in 2020-21.In pursuing much higher bond issuance and help smooth the cash flow profile of upcoming maturities, in 2020-21 the government will add a new December 1st maturity date in the 10-year sector and two new maturity dates in the 3-year bond sector, April 1st and October 1st, by promoting the 3-year bond sector to its own maturity dates (previously fungible with 5-year bonds). As of Fiscal Year 2020-2021, (in Canadian dollars (CAD)) these benchmark size ranges were (as per Table A3.6):https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/services/publications/economic-fiscal-snapshot/debt-management-strategy-2020-21.html 2Y: $20 Billion to $35 Billion for August maturity date and $35 Billion to $50 Billion for November, February, and May maturity dates3Y: $40 Billion to $50 Billion (reopening of old 5-year bonds) for September maturity date and $30 Billion to $50 Billion for April maturity date (own maturity date for 3-year sector)5Y: $45 Billion to $55 Billion for September maturity date and $35 Billion to $50 Billion for March maturity date10Y: $30 Billion to $50 Billion for June and December maturity dates30Y: $25 Billion to $45 Billion for December maturity dates RRB: $9 Billion to $15 Billion for December maturity date (including inflation adjustments).
Colombia	X		We believe it is necessary and important to maintain high volumes all along the yield curve to keep liquidity in the secondary market and to have benchmarks in the different sections of the curves.
Czech Republic	X		Ministry of Finance tries to keep sufficient outstanding amount of T-bonds along the whole yield curve so market participants may benefit from the market liquidity.
Denmark	X		Strategy is aimed at building up liquid benchmark series in the key maturity segments. Focus on 2- and 10-year bonds, which in recent years, have been build up to respectively 6 USD bn. and 13 USD bn. Volumes are however higher in 2020 due to an increased financing requirement following coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Estonia		X
Finland	X
France	X		It is important for us to maintain an ample liquidity on all segments of our market. That being said, we are demand-driven: we would lower volumes issued if demand were weak on a particular segment. Our auction system (bill auction every week, long-term nominal bonds, medium term nominal bond and inflation-linked bond every month) makes it easier to issue on every segment.
Germany	X		Original Bund segments of 2, 5, 10 and 30 years
Greece	X
Hungary	X		We have regular and frequent auctions with maturities from 3 months up to 20 years. This practice ensures us a balanced maturity profile. Bond series are reopened several times, which helps to build up sufficiently large volumes. The targeted sizes are usually between EUR 2-3 billion equivalent, the largest bond series are above EUR 3 billion equivalent.
Iceland	X		It is important to maintain liquidity in most segments on our nominal and inflation-indexed curves, especially in 2, 5 and 10 years lines with regular issuance. A certain pre-announced minimum size in benchmark series is important to support secondary market liquidity.
Ireland	X		It is important to maintain liquidity throughout the curve. In general, the 5yr and 10yr and increasingly the 15 and 30 year points are viewed as key maturity segments and are usually the most active.
Israel	X		One of our primary focuses is on maintaining certain liquidity levels which support tradability, and vice versa. This is also a main goal for the primary dealership model (nonetheless, due to market conditions and structure some segments are known to be less liquid). Primary dealers (PDs) are obligated to quote bonds in both New Israeli Shekel (NIS) denominated Consumer Price Index (CPI)-linked and nominal bonds, including On-the-run bonds. Most bonds are quoted with a maximum spread of 3-4 bps, except for the 10 years On-the-run bond which is quoted with a maximum spread of 2 bps. This intended to specifically support liquidity in the 10y benchmark.
Italy	X		This is a key pillar that we have in mind when define our issuance strategy. For each instrument and for each maturity we set a minimum outstanding volume to be issued before launching a new bond. Having an outstanding large enough for each bond is extremely important in order to guarantee a sufficient liquidity of the bond on the secondary market.
Japan		X	A breakdown of the Japanese Government Bonds (JGB) market issuance by maturity is determined with market needs and trends taken into account, covering a wide range of maturities from the short term to the super long term, based on government debt management policy requirements.
Korea	X		Issue 10-year Korean Treasury Bonds (KTBs), serving as a benchmark, the largest in total funding
Latvia	X		Taking into account relatively low borrowing volumes, and in the same time our presence both in domestic and international markets, we provide at least minimum benchmark size of 500 million EUR for new tenors in international markets. During last years the liquidity of outstanding EUR GMTN notes (i.e. Eurobonds) were increased by several tap issues. Also for domestic bonds, we practice a program approach where domestic bonds are increased by following auctions (Taps) as well.
Lithuania	X		It is important to issue regularly at the longer end – 7-12 years, to ensure liquidity of the bonds. Volumes are not particularly important as longs as the issuance is regular.
Luxembourg	X		Liquidity is certainly important but the Luxembourg bonds lack volume in each maturity segment.
Mexico	X		The Federal Government believes it is important that every issuance of Bonos M and Udibonos are included in global fixed income indices. For this reason, every issuance of these securities must reach certain volumes. In order to achieve the aim the Federal Government uses two mechanisms: Debt Syndication Scheme: it is a complementary mechanism for placing debt in the primary domestic market. This process is designed to issue an important initial outstanding amount on a new benchmark issues (Bonos M: 3, 5, 10, 20 and 30 year, Udibonos: 3, 10 and 30 year) within a broad investor base and ensuring their liquidity in the secondary market. It also guarantees new benchmark issues are eligible for inclusion in the several global fixed income indexes in which Mexico participates. Reopening policy: consists on auctioning previously issued securities in order to set benchmark securities (Bonos M: 3, 5, 10, 20 and 30 year and Udibonos: 3, 10 and 30 year), increasing their outstanding amount to strengthen both pricing and liquidity.
Netherlands	X		10 years and shorter to a minimum of EUR 12 bn, longer than 10 years to a minimum of EUR 10 bn
New Zealand	X		We target quickly building volume in newly syndicated ‘benchmark’ 10y and 20y lines to a minimum of circa New Zealand (NZ)$4b, in order to promote liquidity in these lines that we see as important points on the curve for offshore investors. We have a ‘cap’ on our nominal and inflation-indexed bond lines of NZ$18b and NZ$6b respectively. These caps are designed to balance the need for liquidity in each line with building out a full New Zealand Government Bond (NZGB) curve and mitigating refinancing risk.
Norway	X		We issue a new 10-year bond every year in order to maintain the yield curve up to 10 years. The policy is to build the new 10-year bond up to a volume that constitutes approx. half of the borrowing requirement in each year. There is however large uncertainty about which volumes are necessary to reach satisfying liquidity in the specific segments.
Poland	X		In order to enhance market liquidity it is important to build large issues of benchmark bonds. In case of medium- and long-term domestic fixed rate bonds the desired amount outstanding is at least Polish Zloty (PLN) 25 bn (about USD 6.25 bn).
Portugal	X		We believe it is important to maintain good levels of liquidity in all segments of our curve, in particular in 5y and 10y buckets. In that segments (5y and 10y), it is important to have at least an outstanding amount of USD 5 bln per bond. In steady state we believe that the outstanding volume per bond should hover USD 10 bln.
Slovak Republic	X		We have goals stemming from the Debt Management Strategy that require us to meet refinancing and refixing risk criteria. It is up to DMO what mix of maturities will lead to fulfilling this criteria. We have to issue what market wants and what is risk and cost efficient within the Strategy boundaries.
Slovenia		X	In the past Slovenia tended to issue “smaller” sizes of bonds in comparison to other Eurozone countries (around €1bn). For the past couple of years or so the policy has been to tap existing EUR bonds and thus increasing their original issue size up to €3bn. For the Republic of Slovenia, as a smaller issuer, is therefore liquidity wise not so necessary/important to maintain certain volumes in specific maturity segments than it is to ensure bigger issue size per bond.
Spain	X		We believe it is important to maintain volume throughout our curve, to meet market needs and provide adequate liquidity. This is especially important for benchmark issues, which receive a special focus in this regard.
Sweden	X		Strained liquidity in the government bond market. Liquidity in government securities markets, in Sweden as well as internationally, has deteriorated gradually since the global financial crisis of around ten years ago. Liquidity refers here to the possibility of buying or selling large volumes quickly without affecting market price. When conditions for trading in government securities worsen, the liquidity premium can increase. This means that investors demand a higher return to buy a government security as compensation for the worse liquidity. There is also a risk that investors will abandon the market altogether in favour of other investment alternatives. Investors who have chosen to leave may demand higher returns to re-enter the market. The regulations implemented after the financial crisis – mainly higher capital requirements and requirements on liquidity buffers – are probably the most important cause of the deterioration in conditions. The regulations have made it more difficult and more expensive for primary dealers of government securities to maintain their inventory and quote prices. Another important explanation is that there has been a central government budget surplus for a number of years, which has meant that the supply of government securities has been small at the same time as the Riksbank has purchased an increasing large share of the outstanding stock. The Debt Office has worked in various ways to mitigate the negative effects described above. The issuance of government bonds has been given priority over other borrowing in order to preserve liquidity in the market. Government bonds are considered the most important channel for the central government in being able to ensure low costs over the long term. The issuance volume in the auctions has more often been divided among two different bonds in order to replenish in maturities when there is a shortage. The Debt Office has also reviewed and supplemented the facilities for market maintenance. Now the borrowing requirement is expected to increase temporarily, but drastically, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the supply having increased relatively quickly, the market for government bonds has so far functioned well. There is great demand for Swedish government securities and the auctions have been oversubscribed. Even if the Riksbank continues with its asset purchases, the net supply is still expected to increase in periods ahead, which will hopefully contribute to improving liquidity in the government bond market. From a longer-term perspective, however, the problem remains and market liquidity will continue to be a factor to take into account in the debt management. The regulations will also remain in place and as a result of the surplus target, the supply of central government securities will remain limited in the long term.
Switzerland	X		In our view, it is important or at least required to cover maturities of 1 to 13 years with liquid T-bonds. Additionally in the case of longer maturities, intermittent anchor points with individual bonds may complete the government yield curve. The yields on T-bonds constitute a key benchmark and therefore help to ensure an attractive and efficient Swiss capital market that functions well. As the Federal treasury finances itself exclusively via the domestic market, this market coverage is important.
Turkey	X		In order to improve liquidity in the secondary market, we believe that it is necessary to maintain a certain issue amount for all securities in different maturity segment and currency. Moreover, it is important to maintain a certain volume for benchmark government debt securities to facilitate yield curve formation. These will promote market liquidity and will enhance secondary market performance.
United Kingdom	X		Even though there are no specific volume targets in place, we believe that regular issuance at key benchmark maturities supports more efficient price discovery/price adjustment and, therefore, contributes to smooth functioning of the gilt market. To this end, we focus issuance of conventional (i.e. nominal) gilts particularly at the 5-, 10-, 20- and 30-year benchmark maturities with successive re-openings of relevant bonds until they reach benchmark size (typically at least £25 billion). In 2020-21, owing to the unprecedented size of the financing remit, regular issuance at the 3-,7- and 15-year maturities was also introduced. In the case of index-linked gilts, issuance takes place particularly at 10-, 20- and 30-year maturities with sizes typically built to around £15 billion.
United States	X		Across the curve, we seek to maintain issue sizes that are sufficiently large to support liquidity. While shorter duration securities are generally larger than longer duration securities, there is no fixed level at which we seek to maintain issuance. Instead, we survey the primary dealers to gauge the lower and upper end of issue sizes that would not be surprising, and then use that information to determine changes in the event that we are seeking to increase or decreasing financing to address fiscal flows over the next quarter or upcoming quarters.
Total	32	3

Table B.3. What has been the overall trend in the liquidity conditions of your domestic sovereign bonds -in terms of bid-ask spread, trading volumes etc.- over the last 9 months?

	Trend	Comment
Australia	Improvement	In March-April 2020 Australian Government Bonds (AGBs) experienced a period of stress, along with many other markets globally in response to the coronavirus. Bid-ask spreads on bonds went significantly wider from an average around 1 basis point for a 10-year bond to around 10 basis points. Following actions from the AOFM and the Reserve Bank of Australia (the domestic central bank) these levels normalized to be back around 1 basis point by April. Turnover was elevated over the period January to June 2020. March 2020 was the highest ever recorded monthly turnover in the AOFM turnover survey. In March a large amount of selling of AGBs was undertaken by investors to raise cash. This was due to the liquidity available in the market (investors were locked out of other markets). Also driving elevated turnover over the period was heightened issuance of AGBs to fund fiscal packages in response to the coronavirus. The increase in issuance and market size is expected to contribute to a sustained increased in turnover.
Austria	Improvement	In the first eight months of 2020 (Jan-Aug), we have seen a significant increase in secondary market turnover in Republic of Austria Government Bonds (RAGBs) vs. the same period in 2019. However, in 2020YTD (until October 20, 2020), bid-ask spreads have widened significantly compared to the last year.
Belgium	mixed	After the initial COVID-shock in March, liquidity conditions have quite rapidly normalized. We are committed to help primary dealers assure the liquidity of our bond market; where and when needed we will make sure to provide additional liquidity through auctions. For this reason we added an optional liquidity facility where banks can ask for an auction -for limited amounts- in specific bonds. This was very well received. Little change in terms of volumes traded by customers, certainly if central bank buying is taken into account. Volumes traded inter-dealer however, are significantly down.
Canada	No change	Government securities markets in Canada were exhibiting good liquidity conditions entering the COVID-19 pandemic. Bid-ask spreads are generally low and trading volumes were strong across the curve. Investors exhibited good demand for Government securities including a significant proportion of foreign investors (non-residents).As global uncertainty increased at the beginning of 2020, investor confidence was disrupted and high levels of volatility caused a global flight from risk. Financial markets in Canada began to show signs of impairment with a deterioration in liquidity conditions. Market makers became reluctant to facilitate trades and some market participants rushed to sell assets to increase cash holdings. During this time, pricing of Canadian treasury bills and Government of Canada bonds became more uncertain, making it harder to price other assets (i.e. spread products) in the Canadian fixed income market. Higher bid-ask spreads and price-impact were observed for a few weeks during the months of March and April 2020, they have since reduced to lower levels (please refer to: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2020/05/financial-system-review-2020/). Several policy actions were introduced by the Bank of Canada to help alleviate impaired market liquidity in Canada. A range of liquidity facilities and large-scale asset purchase programs were introduced in March and April 2020 to help restore market functioning and ensure that financial institutions have adequate liquidity. These programs have helped to improve liquidity conditions and market functioning across a wide range of markets. The overall trend in the liquidity conditions of Canadian domestic sovereign bonds is unchanged as liquidity is back to normal levels since at least May 2020 (after its decline in March/April 2020). Furthermore, there has been increased participation from investors in Government of Canada securities.
Colombia	Decline	The overall trend has been declining particularly after mid of March of 2020 trading volumes fall from a daily average of 3 Trillion to an average of 800 Billion local currency bonds in the secondary market of due to worldwide pandemic consequences, international turmoil, high volatility and uncertainty. However, since August of 2020, trading volumes and liquidity of sovereign local Bonds have improved, which are now close to 1.6 Trillion daily on average. In terms of bid-ask spread in March we observed peaks of 50-80pbs spreads in nominal bonds and 50-80pbs spreads in linked bonds. As of November, 2020, bid-ask spreads have decreased to normal spreads as 3pbs spreads in nominal bonds in and 12pbs spreads in linked bonds.
Czech Republic	Decline	Overall, changes in liquidity conditions were observed only in particular bond issues, for example short term government bonds. Negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the bid-ask spread was only temporary (spring 2019). The decline in outstanding trading volumes on the secondary market can be explained by an increase in primary issues, so the primary dealers were flooded by the government bonds supply on the primary market and didn’t have such a need to execute trades on the secondary market.
Denmark	No change	Liquidity was reduced significantly in the market for domestic bonds during March/April 2020, but liquidity in terms of bid-ask spread, trading volumes etc. relatively quickly normalised, as calm was restored in the financial markets.
Estonia	No change	Marketable debt issuance was set up only in 2019 when Treasury Bills were first introduced. In 2020 Estonia re-entered the bond market after 18 years. There is no regular issuance calendar in place.
Finland	Don't know
France	Decline	Liquidity conditions deteriorated significantly from January toward the end of March but improved since April, reaching January levels on September on bid-ask spreads but without a full recovery for trading volumes.
Germany	Improvement	In the first six months 2020 the trading volume was slightly higher than in same period of 2019, although bid-ask spreads have been slightly wider in particular in long maturities. Overall, liquidity conditions in German Federal securities remain excellent.
Greece	Improvement
Hungary	No change	In the spring of 2020 liquidity worsened, the DMO eased the price quoting obligations of Primary Dealers. Since the summer liquidity and trading increased back to pre-pandemic levels.
Iceland	Improvement	Improvement have been in secondary trading turnover over the last 9 months, compared to the first nine months in year 2019, as the Treasury has increased its issue due to COVID-19 pandemic. Bid–ask spread and average ticket size have remained broadly stable in recent years.
Ireland	Improvement	Liquidity and bid-ask spreads have improved in recent months, following markets volatility in the early part of the year at the start of the COVID-19 crisis.
Israel	No change	In March 2020 the coronavirus had spread to over 200 countries including Israel. As a result of the economic conditions and closures, as well as sustained uncertainty regarding the spread of the virus, the liquidity in the local capital market was significantly affected, and primary dealers in Gov. bonds decreased activity. As a result the DMO temporarily eased the quoting requirement, to a best effort basis. In addition some exclusive Primary Dealer (PD) benefits such as the green-shoe were increased. In the end of April there were some signs of market recovery and it was decided to return to the standard quoting obligation policy. Since April, and overall, the trend in liquidity conditions of the domestic sovereign bonds was with no change compared to the trend before the pandemic has begun. It should be mentioned that since May the DMO has significantly increase its issuances in the domestic market, which supported liquidity. On the other hand, in March 2020 the Central Bank (CB) introduced a Gov. bonds purchase program in the secondary market, which was increased in October, in order to support market conditions. This supported the stability while also have and an effect on liquidity.
Italy	Improvement	From January 2020 until now, liquidity conditions have been very volatile and it is difficult to describe a general trend. It appears more appropriate to divide the past 9 months into sub-periods. During January and February 2020 both in terms of volumes traded and of bid-ask spreads, liquidity conditions have been quite stable when compared with those of the previous months. During the months of March and the first half of April, during the peak of COVID-19 crisis, liquidity has dramatically declined in all metrics we may look at. In terms of volumes traded, on the main interdealer platform (MTS Italy) the reduction has been of about 50%. In terms of bid-ask spread, the 10y Buono del Tesoro Poliennale (BTP) point after reaching the widest level in mid-March, started decreasing constantly from mid-April. From mid-April 2020 until now, not only the liquidity conditions have been restored, but also we can observe some improvements with respect to pre-COVID period. During the last month of September, MTS Volumes has doubled with respect to January 2020 and September 2019, while 10-year BTP bid-ask spread has touched a minimum historical level.
Japan	No change	After the government declared a state of emergency in April, the volume of futures trading temporarily decreased and bid-ask spread and price-tail increased due to a fall in market participants’ risk tolerance when they started split operation and remote working. Now, these situations have been improved to the levels before the outbreak of COVID-19.Please refer to Q6.
Korea	No change	We could find the overshooting phenomenon in the trading volumes and bid-ask spread during March, triggering market volatility, due to the pandemic issue.
Latvia	No change	There are no major changes in Bid-Ask spread over last 9 months of Latvia’s domestic sovereign bonds. Trading volumes of Latvia’s domestic sovereign bonds slightly decreased over last 9 months in comparison to whole 2019 trading volumes, but if we compare 2019 and 2020 data – trading volumes has increased. Liquidity is still impacted by European Central Bank (ECB) Quantitative Easing (QE) programs.
Lithuania	Improvement	The trading volume increased in primary and secondary market due to the monetary policy responses over the last 9 months. On the other hand, Bank of Lithuania began implementing the ECB’s Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) and the overall volume of purchases of Republic of Lithuania government bonds has doubled, which led to a decrease in liquidity.
Luxembourg	Don't know
Mexico	Decline	The trend of liquidity conditions in terms of the difference between supply and demand and the volume of operations are decreasing during the months of March and April, driven by the high volatility observed in international markets as a result of the effect generated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Netherlands	Don't know
New Zealand	Improvement
Norway	Decline	We use a liquidity index to monitor liquidity in the secondary market for government bond. The index is a composite of four indicators that are primarily price-based measures. The index shows signs that liquidity has gradually improved since 2012. However, owing to the market turbulence associated with COVID-19, the liquidity conditions declined sharply in March. Since then, the liquidity situation has improved significantly again.
Poland	Decline	The deterioration was closely connected to COVID-19 pandemic – the first case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and lockdown-type control measures were introduced in Poland in March 2020. Quoted bid-ask spreads rocketed up then and the quoted volumes significantly decreased. In a response the requirements regarding max spreads on the electronic market were widened to the levels 3 times higher in March 20. In the months that followed, the levels were gradually tightened and in July 22 the pre-pandemic max spread levels were finally restored. The situation is slowly improving. As of trading volumes we have been observing a significant decrease, especially in outright transactions.
Portugal	No change	Before the pandemic crisis the liquidity in the secondary market was improving vs 2019 in terms of bid-ask spreads, but with lower volumes. After that, liquidity for Portuguese government bonds has decreased considerably, particularly in the month of March, when new COVID-19 cases emerged in European countries: bid-offer spreads widened significantly and Primary Dealers decreased their market making function motivated by increased overall uncertainty (there were days without any quotation). The turnover has also decreased, but particularly the inter-dealer turnover. Regarding this topic, Portuguese Treasury and Debt Management Agency (IGCP) requested recommendations to Primary Dealers, but there was no need to relax the minimum quoting obligations. The ECB measures (namely with the introduction of the PEPP and the new Pandemic Emergency Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (PELTROs)) contributed to stabilize the market and improve liquidity, converging to pre-crisis levels. Bid-ask spreads also tightened again, resuming pre-COVID levels.
Slovak Republic	Decline	Widening of spreads and less trades on MTS since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Slovenia	Decline	In the first half of the year 2020 the bid-ask spread widened due to COVID-19 pandemic, correspondingly trading volumes decreased. Since July 2020 bid-ask spreads started to tighten and are converging the level in the period before pandemic.
Spain	Improvement	During the immediate aftermath of the COVID crises there was a negative spike in liquidity, especially in the longer tenors, but this was quickly reversed and went back to the overall positive trend in liquidity.
Sweden	No change	Good liquidity Jan/Feb. March /April was poor. During the last few months off-the run bonds has suffered somewhat due to quantitative easing while on-the runs works well.
Switzerland	Decline	As in many other countries, the Swiss government bond market experienced a significant decline in liquidity following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. While trading volumes initially increased as investors fled into cash and rebalanced their portfolios, the observed bid-ask spread increased sharply. However, since the end of March, the spreads and volumes are slowly regressing back to pre-COVID-levels.
Turkey	Decline	Average daily trading volume of outright buy and sell transactions in the secondary market has been declined in 2020 compared to 2019, from 319 million USD in 2019 to 246 million USD in 2020. In terms of bid-ask spread, there is no significant change in the last year.
United Kingdom	Improvement	Data from an electronic platform suggest that there was a significant widening in the bid offer spreads of 10-year and 30-year gilts from the beginning of March until the third week of the month, by up to five times normal levels, indicative of challenging market conditions. However, spreads fell sharply between the final week of March and mid-April (to around two to three times normal levels) and by the beginning of May much of this widening was reversed. In terms of the secondary market trading volumes in the gilt market, overall, they have increased over the last 9 months, driven by the increase in trading volumes of conventional gilts (on the back of elevated issuance), which have more than offset the fall in the secondary market trading volumes of index-linked gilts. Secondary market trading volumes (13-week average) in conventional gilts (as reported by primary dealers) have in general been on an upward trajectory over the past four and a half years. The record high was recorded in June 2020 (roughly £210bn a week); the significant expansion of the Bank of England's gilt buying programme may have contributed to this. Since then however, the trading volume has fallen back to circa £165bn levels at end-September 2020. This compares with circa £145bn at end-September 2019. Index-linked gilt turnover (13 weeks average) had been growing over the last 8 to 9 years; and reached a record high in November 2019. However, after a short-run spike in March 2020, the turnover has since fallen back to levels last recorded in 2016-17. It should be noted that index-linked gilts are not eligible for buybacks by the Bank of England. Moreover, the index-linked market turnover may have been affected by an ongoing consultation on reforming the calculation methodology of the Retail Price Index (RPI), which is used to adjust the coupon payments as well as the repayment of the principal of index-linked gilts.
United States	Improvement	Liquidity conditions deteriorated significantly in March, as seen in wider bid-ask spreads, dispersion of prices across the curve, spreads between off-the-run and on-the-run securities, and linkages between cash and futures markets, among others. At the same time, volumes hit record levels, indicating trades were still able to get executed. Since March, most of Treasury market liquidity metrics have normalized, with the notable exception of the long-end of the curve. For example, bid-ask spreads for the 30-year bond have improved dramatically, but still remain somewhat wider than prior to March.
Total: Improvement	12
Total: Decline	10
Total: No change	10
Total: Don’t know	3

Table B.4. Q4 If you answered there was an improvement or a decline in Q3, please specify the main factors that might affect the changes in liquidity conditions?

Over the last 9 months.

	COVID-19 pandemic on a global basis	COVID-19 pandemic on a national basis	Monetary policy developments	Issuance strategies	Design of borrowing instruments	Market microstructure	New regulations	Changes in investor base	Changes in investor sentiment	Others
Australia	X	X	X	X
Austria	X		X	X	X
Belgium			X	X
Colombia	X	X		X	X			X	X
Czech Republic	X	X		X				X
Denmark	X								X
France	X		X						X
Germany	X			X	X				X
Greece	X	X	X	X				X	X
Iceland	X	X	X	X
Ireland	X		X
Italy	X		X	X		X	X	X	X
Lithuania			X						X
Mexico	X	X	X	X				X	X	Change in Credit Sovereign Rate
New Zealand			X	X					X
Norway	X	X		X
Poland	X	X	X					X	X
Slovak Republic	X	X	X						X
Slovenia	X		X
Spain			X	X					X
Switzerland	X	X	X						X
Turkey	X	X	X						X
United Kingdom	X	X	X	X
United States	X	X	X	X		X	X	X
Total	20	13	19	15	3	2	2	7	14	1

Table B.5. Q4 If you answered there was an improvement or a decline in Q3, please specify the main factors that might affect the changes in liquidity conditions?

In the next 12 months.

	COVID-19 pandemic on a global basis	COVID-19 pandemic on a national basis	Monetary policy developments	Issuance strategies	Design of borrowing instruments	Market microstructure	New regulations	Changes in investor base	Changes in investor sentiment	Others
Australia	X	X	X	X
Austria	X		X						X
Belgium			X
Colombia	X	X	X						X
Czech Republic	X	X	X	X				X
Denmark	X								X
France	X	X	X						X
Germany	X		X	X				X
Greece	X	X	X	X				X	X
Iceland	X	X	X	X				X
Italy	X		X	X		X	X	X	X
Lithuania			X						X
Mexico	X	X	X	X		X	X	X	X	USA Election outcome, and Change in Credit Sovereign Rate
New Zealand			X	X					X
Norway	X			X
Poland	X	X	X					X	X
Slovak Republic	X	X	X				X	X	X
Slovenia	X		X
Spain			X
Switzerland	X	X	X						X
Turkey	X	X	X						X
United Kingdom	X	X	X	X		X	X	X	X
United States	X	X	X	X	X		X
Total	19	13	21	11	1	3	5	9	14	2

Table B.6. Q4 If you answered there was an improvement or a decline in Q3, please specify the main factors that might affect the changes in liquidity conditions. – Country Notes

Belgium	Given the increased issuance and the interventions of central banks, the market has been (and may continue to be) much more focused on primary transactions than on secondary positioning.
Canada	The new regulation above is related to regulatory rules to relax the level of regulations (exemption of capital charges for Government Bonds) implemented by the Canadian Government agency “Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions” (OSFI) at the onset of the crisis. The design of borrowing instruments had a few changes to support higher bond issuance and help smooth the cash flow profile of upcoming maturities, three new maturity dates will be introduced, two new maturity dates by promoting 3-year bonds to their own maturity dates and one new maturity date in the 10-year sector. These changes will improve bond issuance capacity and help extend the average maturity of the debt at low interest rates. Please refer to Canada’s Debt Management strategy for FY2020-21 for additional details: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/services/publications/economic-fiscal-snapshot/debt-management-strategy-2020-21.html.
Ireland	ECB PEPP programme assisted market stability
Mexico	The Federal Government observed during the months of March and April an outflow of foreign investors, at the beginning of the year foreign investors maintained a holding of 28.6% in the total of government paper issued, meanwhile to June 30 the percentage dropped to 23.3%. The generalized exit of foreign investors in search of liquidity had a negative impact on the local market rates and foreign exchange rate, which generated high volatility in the price of the instruments during the months mentioned. The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Finance, sought strategies to mitigate the negative impact on the local market, reduced the amounts to be placed in the debt issue calendar by 50%, carried-out government securities swaps, and offered investors to shorten the duration in their portfolios in an orderly way. At the same time, the Central Bank of México, as in most emerging economies, made cuts to target interest rate levels.
Spain	Despite a brief spike at the start of the pandemic, Spanish Government Bond (SPGB) market has remained very liquid, thanks to a very positive investor sentiment, a reliable and transparent issuance strategy and QE measures carried out by the ECB.
United States	On design of borrowing instruments, the US DMO is considering whether to issue a floating rate note indexed to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR). As part of that decision, the DMO is considering various security designs. No decision has been made at this time to proceed with such a security. On new regulations, the Federal Reserve temporarily adjusted how Treasury securities are treated in the calculation of a particular leverage requirement for bank holding companies, with the intention to reduce balance sheet constraints. The US DMO has not determined to what extent this change affected banks behaviours or had any effect on the Treasury market. The DMO is continuing to evaluate this change, and whether the expiration of the rule in 2021 will have any effect, as well. On changes in the investor base, both government-only money market mutual funds and banks significantly increased holdings of Treasury bills beginning in March. There is uncertainty regarding whether those changes are structural or temporary.

Table B.7. Q5 Have you observed changes in liquidity conditions of your foreign bonds over the last 9 months?

	Change	Comment
Austria	No change	Liquidity in our foreign currency issues under the EMTN programme has always been relatively limited. We have not received any indications that this has changed.
Belgium	No change	We do not impose quoting obligations on our foreign currency bonds and do not track liquidity conditions.
Canada	Decline	Canada issues foreign global bonds denominated in both USD and in Euros. Regarding foreign bonds issued in USD, these are typically issued to buy and hold investors, and, as such, are not actively traded. When investors want to sell, they are often able to find dealers who are willing to make markets for these bonds. Foreign USD bonds are typically issued through a syndication process. To be considered for the syndicate, dealers must meet eligibility criteria, including the provision of market-making services for these Foreign USD bonds. There has not been a large change in the past year in terms of liquidity for these instruments. Although, over the last few years, bid-ask spreads have generally widened, and dealers are less willing to warehouse excess inventory due to balance sheet constraints. There has also been an increase in crowded trades and herding behaviour as dealer positions have become more similar. Oftentimes, the market tends to trade in the same direction, as the underlying factors driving dealer behaviour reflect similar macroeconomic and technical factors. Euro and USD medium-term notes can also be issued through a private placement process. In general the liquidity of Medium Term Notes (MTNs), especially non-structured MTNs, have deteriorated.
Colombia	No change
Czech Republic	Don't know	Since 2012, Ministry of Finance of the Czech republic is has not entered the Eurobond market and relied only on the domestic market. As of 30 June 2020, there are only 2 issues of Eurobond (due 2021 and 2022) outstanding.
Denmark	Don't know	Kingdom of Denmark issued its first bond in foreign currency since 2014 in October 2020.
Finland	Don't know
Iceland	No change	The data is poor but we expect that liquidity in the foreign bonds issued under EMTN program has always been limited.
Israel	Don't know	In general the DMO have increased the foreign bonds issuances which supported liquidity. Nonetheless our market data (liquidity, volumes) is very limited.
Italy	Improvement	Regarding foreign bonds, the two formats used by Republic of Italy are Global Bond Programme and Medium Term Note Programme. The liquidity of foreign bonds is substantially lower than that of domestic bonds: they are issued less frequently, have smaller amounts and are often tailored to specific investors. Last year, Republic of Italy returned to dollar market, through a $ 7bn triple-tranche issuance using the Global Bond format, with 5Y, 10Y and 30Y maturities, after nine years of absence. The transaction has had a positive impact on liquidity, creating a new yield curve in US dollars and enlarging investors’ base. Whereas before that Republic of Italy had only two Global bonds (2023 and 2033), dated and characterised by scarce activity, now outstanding bonds amount to $12.5 bn. All Specialists in Government Bonds, after a renewal of their commitment, have promoted trading of these new bonds on the secondary market, in order to boost liquidity. We have seen interest especially in the 5 year and in the 30 year over the last nine months, but the performance has been largely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on market conditions in the period from March to April. The pandemic crisis has created volatility and uncertainty, worsening liquidity in all markets and lowering volumes traded. The intervention of governments and central banks has caused a positive impact on liquidity, reducing bid-ask spreads but not on Global bonds: they are not included in the central banks’ programmes, so they haven’t take advantage of their measures. We have observed significant improvements in liquidity in the last months and our intention is to maintain a constant presence on this market with at least one transaction every year to guarantee liquidity on all maturities along the curve, also by reopening of outstanding securities. As for Medium Term Note Programme, we use this channel through public or private placements due to its flexibility in terms of structure, size and maturity, in order to satisfy particular requests from the market and to obtain an arbitrage with respect to corresponding BTPs. Most of these bonds are issued in a reverse inquiry transaction and held to maturity by the investor (buy and hold), so they aren’t liquid and there is no secondary market.
Korea	Improvement	While the demand for Emerging Market’s (EM’s) treasury bonds reduced, the inflow of foreign bonds investment into South Korean bonds continued, the balance hitting the record high in August (151.0 trillion won)
Latvia	No change	Liquidity is still impacted by ECB QE programs.
Lithuania	No change
Mexico	Decline	In February, the Federal Government observed a significant shock in foreign markets due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which lasted for several months whilst the world adapted to the measures taken in order to contain the spread of the “coronavirus”.  Economic and financial conditions were distorted, including liquidity, since investors where evaluating the magnitude and duration of the uncertainty created by the pandemic. Naturally, the performance of our foreign bonds wasn’t immune to this challenging conditions; since public information regarding bonds’ liquidity levels is not available so often, we monitored the differential between the bid and ask prices as a proxy for this indicator and saw a lot of volatility (especially during March and April) with wider spreads.
Poland	Don't know
Portugal	No change	We have only one foreign bond that is actively traded in the market, and we have not experienced any relevant change in the liquidity of this bond – so, we don’t have strong evidence of changes in liquidity conditions in this market.
Slovak Republic	Don't know	No foreign bond are being traded on MTS. These issues are smaller mostly in hands of buy and hold investors. We have very limited information about liquidity of these bonds.
Slovenia	No change
Spain	No change
Sweden	Don't know
Turkey	Decline	Average daily trading volume of foreign bonds (Eurobonds) in the secondary market slightly decreased in 2020 in terms of USD trading volume (for year 2020, daily average was 1.24 million USD while for year 2019 it was 1.4 million USD)
Total: Improvement	2
Total: Decline	3
Total: No change	9
Total: Don’t know	7

Note: Countries which answered not applicable are excluded.

Table B.8. Q6 Have you observed changes in liquidity conditions of bond related derivate and repo markets over the last 9 months?

	Change	Comment
Australia	No change	The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) (domestic central bank) provided extra liquidity to the market in response to the pandemic: initially by providing extra repo funding; then beginning bond purchases; and providing term repo (Term Funding Facility). This has provided banks with extra liquidity which in turn they can use to offer repo funding to investors. The RBA also set a target for the 3 year bond of 0.25%. This has reduced turnover in the 3 yr futures contract (as less reason to hedge) but there is generally good liquidity available in the contract.
Austria	Mixed
Belgium	No change	We offer a repo facility.
Canada	No change	Liquidity varies across term types in the futures market. When comparing different terms to maturities, liquidity has often been the highest for old 10-year securities. Furthermore, in the 10-year sector, bond futures have been more liquid than the cash market. Liquidity in the futures market for the 2–year and 5-year sectors remains subdued. In the last few years, repo markets have been functioning well with good levels of liquidity and no repo tightness.
Colombia	Improvement	Repo market in Colombia between primary dealers have improved, mainly between May and September of 2020 because of an expansionary monetary policy, long terms for repos and diversification in repo guarantees, government subsidies, among other policies that help banking institutions to deal with the contraction of the economy.
Czech Republic	Don't know
Denmark	No change
France	No change	On the repo markets the volumes were higher in September compared to last January while the outstanding amount was pretty unchanged.
Germany	No change	The repo market liquidity faced a noticeable relaxation at the beginning of the year. The Corona crisis affected this in two ways: Bond supply increased in consequence of higher debt needs whilst it has been offset by the ECB programs, which lead to a new equilibrium. Against this background the future market has at least maintained and its pivotal role for the liquidity conditions in the European Government Bonds (EGB) market.
Greece	No change
Hungary	Decline	Repo transactions for security lending purposes declined, cash management repos were suspended by the DMO in April in order to increase cash buffer.
Ireland	No change
Israel	No change
Italy	Improvement	The framework of the end of the last year, characterized by the excess of liquidity in the financial system did not changed in the first three quarters of 2020. In the last 9 months the volume traded in Repo market remained stable and decreased slightly if compared with the fourth quarter of 2019. In the third quarter of this year, even if the value of the volumes traded is about the same of the first two quarter of 2020, there was a decrease of General Collateral trades offset by an increase of Special Repo trades. Therefore, the excess of liquidity in the financial market lead to a minor funding activity through Repo market, while it was extremely useful for market maker to further provide liquidity on the secondary cash market on specific bonds. In addition, in the third quarter the volumes of Repo trades executed by foreign counterparties has dropped consistently as compared with the first months of 2020 while there was an increase of volumes concluded by Italian counterparties.
Japan	Decline	After the government declared a state of emergency in April, the volume of futures trading temporarily decreased due to a fall in market participants’ risk tolerance when they started split operation and remote working. Now, these situations have been improved to the levels before the outbreak of COVID-19.
Korea	Don't know
Lithuania	Don't know
Mexico	Decline	Prior to the announcement of containment and liquidity measures form both El Banco de México (BANXICO) and Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (SHCP) to address the situation both repo and derivatives curve were under big pressure as the risk off mood was evolving. This dynamic changed towards May and June until cash facilities were implemented and market participants (especially banks were able to use them).
Netherlands	Don't know
New Zealand	Don't know
Norway	Improvement	Trading activity and turnover has improved in the repo market over the last months after a period of unusually low activity in the second half of 2019.
Poland	Decline	The average monthly value of transactions (repo and buy-sell-back) amounted to ca. PLN 550m, while in 2019 it was ca. PLN 730m and in the previous years it exceeded PLN 600m. A significant decline in the value of transactions has been observed since a few months.
Slovenia	No change
Spain	No change	Once again, there was a spike in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a fast recovery to conditions in repo markets and bond-related derivatives.
Sweden	Improvement	Slightly more generous repo facility regarding bonds vs collateral - seems to have eased the strain somewhat in the repo market.
Switzerland	No change	We do have a bond future market (CONF Futures), however due to the lack of involvement in this market we are not aware of changes in liquidity conditions. In general turnover on repo markets dropped after 2008 due to liquidity oversupply. With the introduction of negative interest rates by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in 2015 turnover rose again, as participants are now trading their exemption thresholds on SNB sight deposit accounts. The share of repo transactions which were collateralized with bonds of the Swiss Confederation did not change significantly. This although the introduction of new regulations such as Basel III (i.e. Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR)) or Swiss Solvency Test (SST) and enhanced trading of collateral (instead of liquidity) via repo market.
Turkey	Improvement	Average daily trading volume of repo-reverse repo transactions in the secondary market has been improved in 2020 compared to 2019, from 9.9 billion USD in 2019 to 10.7 billion USD in 2020.
United Kingdom	Improvement	According to Bank of England data, liquidity in the sterling repo markets has improved over the last 12 months. However, liquidity is concentrated on: (i) the overnight repo (where a financial institution sells securities and agrees to buy them back the following day); and on (ii) tomorrow/next day maturity (a transaction that spans two consecutive business days – tomorrow and the following day – that enables traders to roll over their positions). As a consequence, conditions are challenging in longer term trading.
United States	Improvement	In line with cash markets, liquidity conditions deteriorated in the futures market, as measured by bid-ask spreads and market depth.
Total: Improvement	7
Total: Decline	4
Total: No change	12
Total: Don’t know	5

Note: Countries which answered not applicable are excluded.

Table B.9. Q7 Do you have measures in place to motivate dealers to provide liquidity?

	Yes	No	Comment
Australia		X	While we don’t have any explicit measures, secondary market activity and liquidity provision (particularly in challenging conditions) can and often is considered in selecting Joint Lead Managers to manage syndicated issuance on behalf of the AOFM. The fees available to Joint Lead Managers (JLMs) through syndicated issuance may help motivate intermediaries to provide secondary market liquidity.
Austria	X		According the General Primary Dealer Agreement, primary dealers have to take care of the market for all RAGBs during trading hours. The bid/offer spread needs to be reasonable and bid/offer sizes shall allow for bigger tickets, too. The secondary market performance of primary dealers is monitored and part of the overall primary dealer performance ranking.
Belgium	X		We rank our dealers to reward them with syndicated issues. The auctions are rewarded with non-competitive offers and we reward the performance on our selected e-platforms BtoB in a second round of non-competitive offers.
Canada	X		The dealer model used in Canada creates incentives for dealers to provide liquidity to the market. To participate as a dealer in the Government of Canada (GoC) primary market, entities must meet specific criteria: • Dealers must maintain certain levels of domestic fixed-income trading activity • Dealers must demonstrate adequate levels of participation at auctions Once an entity has obtained its dealer status, it benefits by having direct access to the primary market. Customers must bid through dealers and don’t have access to the primary market directly. Dealers may benefit from being able to observe customer order flow. The government also conducts operations that benefit dealers. One such operation is the switch buyback which improves the dealer’s access to building benchmarks. Other benefits for dealers may include increased visibility and recognition, along with the potential to attract more clients for its business. Government securities distributors (GSDs) (i.e., dealers) are encouraged to provide liquidity. Bidding limits for Government of Canada bond and treasury bill auctions are calculated based on the GSD’s trading activity in primary and secondary markets. A GSD may be granted a primary dealer (PD) status when its calculated bidding limit reaches a threshold level of 10 per cent based on its primary and secondary market share, and buyback activity. Having achieved PD status, a GSD is allowed a higher bidding limit and thus a larger presence (compared to GSDs) in the primary auctions. Further, PDs themselves have different bidding limits dictated in part by their secondary market activity and their participation in buyback activities. PDs must maintain a minimum level of activity in primary and secondary markets, must participate for a minimum amount within a certain price threshold at every auction, and are expected to make two-sided markets for GoC securities under normal market conditions. PDs must also have their core domestic fixed-income market trading and sales operation for GoC securities reside within Canada. In return for these obligations, PDs have greater access to the GoC securities auctions both for their own account and on behalf of their customers as well as the ability to gather information from customer order flow at auctions. PDs are also eligible to participate in the following Bank of Canada (BoC) operations: overnight repos and reverse repos, term repos, securities lending, and overnight standing repo facility. They are also eligible to participate in the morning auctions of Receiver General cash balances. The Government of Canada employs an open and collaborative approach for its debt management function. Actions such as engaging in market consultations and also incorporating dealer feedback into the decision-making process have been effective. This approach has helped to ensure the well-functioning of the Government of Canada markets and favourable conditions for market liquidity in both the primary and secondary Government of Canada securities markets as well. Being open and transparent in the communication strategy with dealers has also been an effective approach to motivating dealers to provide liquidity to the market. The following are two examples of our transparency in communication with financial market participants: • Publication of the quarterly bond schedule prior to the start of each quarter in advance of auctions • Publishing details for each operation in a call for tender a week prior to the auction
Colombia	X		During the pandemic crisis we took different measures as: extending to at least 3 maturity segments in long term auctions, decreasing amounts in short and long term auctions, change the parameters of allocations for example for Bid to cover ratio higher than 2 times we allocated 30% additional to the initial amount offered and for an auction with a Bid to Cover ratio higher than 2.5 times we allocated 50% additional to the initial amount offered. In Security Lending Facilities, we decrease to 0% the lending rate to prevent liquidity market risk. We issued for the first time a 30 year benchmark Bond in fixed rate, which later was included in weekly auctions. We made more flexible the criteria to qualify to the Market - Makers Program.
Czech Republic	X		Tools applied for secondary market liquidity: Issuing calendar publishing and sufficient outstanding amount of benchmark bonds. Quoting obligation of benchmark government bonds and subsequent evaluation of Primary dealers. Primary dealer’s access to Ministry of Finance lending facilities (repos and loans of securities available for Primary dealers) Buy-back of short term illiquid bonds and their replacement by benchmark bonds (switch auction facility available for Primary dealers).
Denmark	X		To support the primary and secondary markets, the central government has entered into primary dealer contracts with a number of regional and international banks.
Estonia		X
Finland	X		Fee-producing business allocated according to performance measurement, where liquidity provision (both end-investor and interbank) are used as inputs
France	X		The most effective measures are a responsive auction system, reducing the risk of protracted short positions for dealers providing liquidity, the obligation for dealers to provide the market making of our bonds under set metrics on MTS France and Brokertec that are monitored, as well as the taking into account of volumes traded on the secondary market in the ranking of primary dealers (which serves as an objective base to attribute mandates of syndicated deals and also has, for well-ranked primary dealers, a marketing value). In addition, we have a security lending facility to help dealers in case of delivery issues and we also run a buyback programme for Obligations Assimilables du Trésor (OAT) exiting the medium and long-term market (0-2 years of remaining maturity).
Germany		X
Greece	X
Hungary	X		• Primary Dealers (PDs) are required to buy at auctions a minimum share of Bonds and 1-year T-Bills in every calendar half-year period. • The names of the 5 best PDs in both Bond and T-Bill auctions are published on our website at the end of every half year. • Primary dealers are required to quote two-way prices with minimum amounts and maximum spreads set. Failing to meet these requirements results in sanctions. • Best price quotation data (with the PD’s name who quoted the best bid or offer price for the given security) is published together with a benchmark fixing. • The DMO supports PDs’ price quotation by a stand-by repo facility, where PDs can ask the DMO for government securities to a limited amount. • In 2012 MTS Hungary was introduced and PDs’ price quotation was moved to this platform. Some other functionalities of this platform can be attractive to PDs. Mid-price crossing function was introduced in August 2016 in order to generate higher trading volume on the MTS Hungary platform. • Every year the best PDs are awarded (based on auction participation, secondary market share, buy-backs, repos with the DMO) and the first 3 in each category is published.
Iceland	X		Primary dealers are obliged to submit quotes with a maximum spread and for a minimum volume in each series on the Stock exchange. Primary dealers are also obliged to renew their offer within certain minutes after execution of transaction. Instead the PDs´ have exclusive access to the primary auctions and have the option to buy additional 10% at the accepted price 2 business days after the day of the auction. They have also exclusive access to securities lending facility offer and other privilege offered by DMO. Finally the Treasury pays the primary dealer a commission that is calculated as his share of all PDs´ benchmark trades on the Stock exchange. The total disposable amount is decided by the Treasury on annually basis.
Ireland	X		Dealers are required to make two-way prices in Irish government bonds for 5 hours a day in €5m size. They are also incentivised through rankings to quote tighter spreads. The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) also offers repos and switches to assist Primary Dealers in market-making
Israel	X		The main measure is the primary dealership program. We require primary dealers to comply with several obligations in both primary and secondary markets, and in return grant several exclusive benefits such as: exclusive auctions, green-shoe, access to the government bond lending facility and the title of 'Primary Dealer in Israeli Government Bonds'. In addition, only PDs are nominated as underwriters in global issuances and are considered as exclusive counterparties for hedging transactions. In our experience financial incentives are the most effective as long as the cost of the current activity is not significantly higher. Continuous communication with the market – PDs as well as other type of investors – also contributes, as well as providing transparency to market participants.
Italy	X		Our Evaluation Criteria of Specialists in Government Bonds provide a detailed and systematic set of parameters to measure the contribution of each market maker to trading and quoting activity, both in the cash and in the repo markets. These parameters are changed in the medium term according to market conditions and public debt management objectives. These changes are therefore introduced when the evolution of market conditions makes some parameters less effective in motivating market makers to bring enough liquidity on the market or when the DMO updates its debt management goals (for example by changing emphasis on issuance activity from some products to others), which may require a consistent re-orientation of market makers’ efforts. The Evaluation Criteria of the last decade (and even more) can be found on the Treasury Public Debt website (www.publicdebt.it).For 2020, the Treasury has considered opportune to keep the 2019 Evaluation Criteria mostly unchanged, considering the efficiency of the measures foreseen in 2019 in motivating dealers to provide liquidity. However, we monitor closely the evolution of the market to react in a timely manner in case of need of any amendment to our Evaluation Criteria, even during the course of the year. Just as a reminder, in May 2018, as a response to the severe liquidity drop on the Italian government market, Italian Treasury has changed the Evaluation Criteria of our Primary Dealers in order to:- Incentivize PDs to provide liquidity to the short-end segment of the yield curve, therefore on the Treasury bills and bonds with a maturity up to 3 years.- Incentivize PDs to increase the depth of the market, on all traded bonds, through the re-introduction of a parameter called “Depth contribution Index”. On the other hand, no change has been introduced during the COVID-19 crisis, given the global scale of the crisis and the difficulties encountered by the dealers to provide liquidity to the market.
Japan	X		Although it is difficult to compare the effectiveness of each policy, Liquidity Enhancement Auctions have been one of the most major policies for providing liquidity in the JGB market.
Korea	X		Allowing primary dealers to exercise more non-competitive bids during April to December 2020.
Latvia	X		Latvia does not apply financial (fee-related) measures for PDs, but PDs have exclusive rights to participate in governments organized auctions and act as a market maker. We have set an obligation for PDs to provide quotes in Bloomberg and Nasdaq Riga (stock exchange) as well.
Lithuania		X
Luxembourg		X
Mexico	X		One of the measures announced by the Bank of Mexico was the "Use of measures to promote an orderly behaviour of financial markets, strengthen the channels of credit granted for banks and provide liquidity for the healthy development of the financial system". The above can be consulted on the Central Bank's website. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit used its tools of Liability Management operations reducing duration and asset swap mechanism to supply liquidity in the market in different curve sectors and different types of instruments.
Netherlands	X		Quotation obligation with non-competitive option as a reward.
New Zealand	X		Maximizing secondary market liquidity was one of the key objectives underpinning the introduction of our Primary Markets Access Framework that came into effect on 30 September 2019.The framework intends to formalize the incentives and rewards for registered tender counterparties actively engaged in supporting liquidity in the NZGB market. This includes being considered for appointment to syndication panels, participation in roadshows and conferences, and other auxiliary financial markets transactional business.
Norway	X		Our performance based remuneration scheme provides the primary dealers with incentives to attract investors and maintain an active secondary market.
Poland	X		There are: quality quotation index (since October 2011) and value of outright transactions concluded on Electronic market (since July 2019). The first one has stimulated the liquidity on the Treasury Securities (TS) market. It also constitutes the reference for calculations for other entities to evaluate their portfolios (real-time prices available to all market participants). The latter was introduced to additionally boost the liquidity on the secondary market. These measures are taken into account when evaluating Treasury Securities Dealers (TSDs) and applicants to the role, and encourage them to be more active on the market as it brings higher scoring.
Portugal	X		We allocate 35% of the PD evaluation to liquidity related criteria: 17,5% to quoting criteria (divided into 3 categories) and 17,5% to turnover with end-investors (from Harmonised reporting format (HRF) reports).Quoting Total points = 17,5% (divided into quoting obligation (mandatory), additional amount and time quoted (non-mandatory), and passive turnover (non-mandatory))-Quoting obligations = 7,5% On the quoting criteria we ask PDs to quote the Portuguese Government bonds for a minimum of 5 hours, with 5 million each side and with a bid-ask spread that cannot be larger than the average of the bid-asks spreads of all PDs times 1.5; Bid-ask spreads quoted under a certain target are awarded twice as much.-Additional amount and time quoted = 5% We give additional points to PDs that quote with extra amount and extra time on top of the mandatory by the first criteria.-Passive turnover = 5% We award points to PDs that are quoting on our platforms and are more often the passive counterparty of a transaction when compared to being the active counterparty in a transaction. This measure incentivizes PDs to keep quoting on the electronic platforms, as now they are awarded for being “hit” by other PDs. Indirectly it creates a penalty for abusive dealers who only “hit” the platform as they are awarded 0 points. In addition to all of these, we multiply the daily score in the quoting obligation of each PD by a volatility factor that is added on special volatile days, giving extra points to the PDs that quote on those “volatile days.
Slovak Republic	X		The evaluation of the Euro Market Activity Report (EMAR) (formerly HRF reports) is one part of overall evaluation of PDs. The other part is MTS quoting evaluation. The MTS quoting represents 20% of overall evaluation and EMAR trades 10%.
Slovenia	X		Performance index, which includes measuring of the secondary market activity of the Primary Dealers for the domestic currency bonds. Performance index is one of the most important factors when awarding a mandate among the Primary Dealers to lead a syndicated bond issue of the Republic. In accordance with the Primary Dealer Agreement the Primary Dealers are obliged to contribute to the liquidity of the domestic currency government bond market by market making on the designated electronic trading platform (currently MTS Slovenia) in accordance with its Rules as well as by their other intra-dealer and customer trading. They are expected to allocate and maintain sufficient resources in terms of human resources, financial situation and organization of its trading and sales forces to support an orderly, efficient and liquid secondary market of government bonds.
Spain	X		We have an evaluation procedure for all market-makers inside the SPGB market, which decides the entities that get to play a role as Joint-Lead Managers in syndication procedures. This evaluation looks at qualitative and quantitative measurements, both in primary and secondary markets.
Sweden	X		Market-supporting repos and switches: Continual repos in government securities Repos in newly introduced bonds Repo swaps Switching inflation-linked bonds The Debt Office has little opportunity to influence liquidity in the secondary market directly, because the supply of government bonds depends on the government borrowing requirement. Instead, the strategy is to try to create conditions for good liquidity through repo facilities. When the survey participants were asked to rank the importance of the Debt Office’s strategies, the market-supporting repo facility was ranked first.
Switzerland	X		By selling so-called “own tranches” directly to investors on demand and at market prices, the Treasury is able to bridge temporary illiquidity in certain bond lines.
Turkey	X		Market Maker program for selected (benchmark) government debt securities is being in place in the Borsa Istanbul Debt Securities Market to promote liquidity and efficient pricing.
United Kingdom	X		One of the criteria that needs to be met by firms in order to obtain and maintain their primary dealer status is to commit to make, on demand and in all conditions, continuous and effective two-way prices to their clients, in all gilts for which they are recognised as a market maker. However, the DMO does not mandate bid/offer spreads or specify minimum bid or offer sizes. The DMO monitors the secondary market turnover share of each primary dealer and has regular contact with primary dealer firms about their performance. The willingness and ability of primary dealers to provide liquidity comes from a combination of factors: first, the overall primary dealer franchise arrangements (i.e. responsibilities placed upon and privileges granted to primary dealers). Privileges include exclusive eligibility to submit competitive bids at primary issuance operations directly to the DMO, preferred counterparty status, participation in consultation meetings and, for primary dealers in the wholesale market, eligibility for selection as a syndication lead manager. Other factors include the design of the issuance programme (i.e. regular issuance at key benchmark maturities), and associated market infrastructure (i.e. the systems and processes that facilitate trading).
United States	X		The Federal Reserve Bank of New York manages the primary dealer relationship. Dealers that want to become primary dealers must meet certain eligibility requirements, including acting as a market-maker in the U.S. Treasury market. Specifically, primary dealers must: “Demonstrate a substantial presence as a market maker that provides two-way liquidity in U.S. government securities, particularly Treasury cash and repo operations, for at least one year prior to the application date; ”Maintain a share of Treasury market making activity of at least 0.25 per cent” https://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/primarydealers
Total	31	5

Table B.10. Q8 Do you undertake any other measures in order to enhance liquidity?

	Yes	No
Australia	X
Austria	X
Belgium	X
Canada	X
Colombia	X
Czech Republic	X
Denmark	X
Estonia		X
Finland	X
France	X
Germany	X
Greece	X
Hungary	X
Iceland	X
Ireland	X
Israel	X
Italy	X
Japan	X
Korea	X
Latvia	X
Lithuania	X
Luxembourg		X
Mexico	X
Netherlands	X
New Zealand	X
Norway	X
Poland	X
Portugal	X
Slovak Republic	X
Slovenia	X
Spain	X
Sweden	X
Switzerland	X
Turkey	X
United Kingdom	X
United States	X
Total	34	2

Table B.11. Q8b If yes to Q8, please specify the measures that you undertake to enhance liquidity.

	Benchmark bond programme	Re-opening auctions	Tap sales	Frequency and size of auctions	Primary dealer models	Buy backs of illiquid lines	Strips programme	Security lending facility and repos	Secondary trading operations	Others
Australia	X	X	X	X				X
Austria	X	X	X	X	X		X		X
Belgium		X		X		X		X		X
Canada	X	X		X	X	X		X		X
Colombia	X			X	X			X	X
Czech Republic	X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X
Denmark	X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X
Estonia
Finland	X	X			X
France	X	X		X	X		X	X	X
Germany	X		X	X			X	X	X
Greece	X	X	X		X	X
Hungary	X	X		X	X	X		X
Iceland	X	X		X	X	X		X		X
Ireland	X		X	X	X	X		X	X
Israel	X		X	X	X	X		X
Italy	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Japan		X			X	X
Korea				X	X	X	X
Latvia	X	X	X	X	X
Lithuania	X	X	X	X
Luxembourg
Mexico	X	X		X	X	X		X	X
Netherlands	X	X			X		X	X
New Zealand	X		X	X	X	X
Norway		X		X	X			X		X
Poland	X	X	X	X	X			X
Portugal	X	X	X	X	X	X		X	X
Slovak Republic	X	X	X		X	X			X
Slovenia	X		X		X	X		X
Spain	X	X		X	X		X
Sweden	X		X	X	X			X
Switzerland		X		X					X
Turkey	X	X		X	X		X	X	X	X
United Kingdom	X	X		X	X		X	X
United States	X	X		X	X		X
Total	29	26	17	28	29	17	10	21	12	5

Table B.12. Q8b Other specified measures that you undertake to enhance liquidity measures that you undertake to enhance liquidity

	Specified others
Belgium	Optional Reverse Inquiries; a facility to tap bonds on demand (in limited size).
Canada	A debt management program that is based on the pillars of transparency, regularity, liquidity, and prudence. Minimum bidding requirements and maximum bidding limits for government securities distributors and customers -> auction rules. The posting of a quarterly bond auction schedule prior to the start of each quarter. Being a transparent and predicable issuer helps the Government of Canada to reassure investors that the bonds they wish to purchase will be available, and it also allows investors to plan out their investment strategy. A combination of these measures helps to boost investor confidence, which contributes towards enhancing market liquidity. Benchmark target range sizes are planned and announced at the beginning of the fiscal year as part of the Debt Management Strategy. Cash Management Bond Buybacks (CMBBs)
Iceland	Switch auctions.
Norway	Buy-backs of bonds with less than 1 year to maturity.
Turkey	Switch auctions.

Table B.13. Q9 Have you imposed new requirements on market-makers in their provision of liquidity over the last 9 months?

	Yes	No	Comment
Australia		X
Austria		X
Belgium		X
Canada		X	N/A
Colombia		X	Among the requirements for primary dealers, in march we increase the bid ask spread from 20 to 80 bps and gradually we have reduced it to 30 bps for nominal bonds and 40 bps for inflation-linked bonds in local currency.
Czech Republic		X
Denmark		X
Estonia		X
Finland		X
France		X
Germany		X	We do not impose any requirements on market makers. The only requirements are imposed by the trading venue.
Greece		X
Hungary		X
Iceland		X
Ireland		X
Israel		X
Italy		X	Please refer to the answer to the question n°7.
Japan		X
Korea		X
Latvia		X
Lithuania		X
Luxembourg		X
Mexico		X	The requirements established to be part of the figure of Market-Maker have remained unchanged. During the month of April, the Ministry of Finance announced, together with the Bank of Mexico, an additional facility to the figure: An Exclusive Government Securities Swap. This facility is intended to improve liquidity conditions for Market-Makers and to do more attractive the figure.
Netherlands		X
New Zealand		X
Norway		X
Poland		X
Portugal	X		In the quoting obligations, (question 7) bid-ask spreads targets were tightened.
Slovak Republic		X	But we introduced MTS Slovakia in February 2018 which was a substantial change
Slovenia	X		The current requirements have been efficiently supportive, so far. We encourage PDs/ Market Makers (MMs) to provide market updates and information/commentary on the secondary market flows of the government bonds. Such contribution is evaluated in the qualitative part of the Performance Index. This is not a new measure, but has become more important in the current circumstances.
Spain		X	We have included new measures to help incentivize their provision of liquidity, but we have not imposed specific requirements. An example of a recently implemented incentive is the change in pricing received by market-makers in the second rounds of auctions. We have changed the yield that they receive these securities at from average weighted yields to cut-off yields. This makes it more interesting for market-makers to execute their option of purchasing second-round bonds.
Sweden		X
Switzerland		X	We do not rely on a primary dealer system
Turkey		X
United Kingdom		X
United States		X
Total	2	34

Table B.14. Q10 If you have adapted your funding strategies and operations in response to the pandemic, how have you communicated the changes in your funding needs and other operations with the market? Please elaborate on the main considerations

Australia	The AOFM maintains an email distribution list and sent out program updates regularly in the period March to July 2020. These updates also appeared on https://www.aofm.gov.au/program/update. The AOFM views this as being the most widely available format for market communications. We had limited certainty over the funding required (as the Budget was delayed until October). We instead opted to communicate weekly issuance rates (e.g. around $5 billion per week of Treasury Bonds) based on short term spending and revenue forecasts. The specific transactions to be undertaken in a given week were announced at midday on the Friday prior (via subscriber email and website). This has been standard AOFM practice for a number of years and was not changed in response to the pandemic (see example https://www.aofm.gov.au/program/forthcoming-transactions). In order to meet the required funding rate we undertook multiple syndications of new maturities. These enabled us to achieve greater volumes than at tender. The plan to establish new maturities was first announced at the start of April via email distribution list (and website) with the specific timing unveiled on the Friday prior to launch (at the same time tenders would normally be announced).The AOFM ceased buyback operations on 20 March 2020 (this was sent as an email and on the website). This was in response to the RBA beginning bond purchases in the secondary market. It also reduced the need for the AOFM to fund buybacks and instead could focus on funding the deficit. We also became more reliant on the Treasury Note market (short term discount securities) regularly issuing $5 billion per week. Treasury Notes went from $3 billion outstanding on 30 June 2019 to $59 billion at 30 June 2020. We had broadcast to the market a higher reliance on Treasury Notes prior to the pandemic (in early July 2019) via a series of meetings and email communication but issuance was significantly increased from March 2020. This was also communicated in our updates.
Austria	In 2020 Austria has increased the use of bi-lateral syndicated taps of RAGB. This has further improved secondary market turnover and has helped to keep average monthly auction sizes relatively unchanged compared to 2019 although overall RAGB funding has nearly doubled.
Belgium	Yes. We added a 3rd large syndicated issue and increased frequency of our OLO auctions, added medium term Treasury Certificates (TC) lines and the total issuances program was also increased. The changes were announced to the dealer group and a press release.
Canada	The Government of Canada employs an open and collaborative approach for its debt management function. Actions such as publishing market notices which act as information communiques containing operational details, and/or new program announcements have been effective. Senior government officials have also effectively communicated changes in funding needs and information on programs and operations during public appearances/speeches. This approach has helped to ensure the well-functioning of the Government of Canada markets and favourable conditions for market liquidity in both the primary and secondary Government of Canada securities markets. In addition, new programs and changes to existing programs that have been announced by the Government to support key financial markets to ensure that they continue to function properly, have been well received by market participants and PDs. Given the government’s unprecedented borrowing requirements due to COVID-19, Government officials have also communicated directly to PDs in order to reinforce PDs significant role in Government of Canada Debt Distribution Framework (DDF) in helping to manage the huge increase in Government issuance and providing secondary market liquidity to the GoC market. Being open and transparent in the communication strategy with PDs has also been an effective approach to motivating dealers to provide liquidity to the market and to support primary market issuance.
Colombia	We have kept a good communication with market makers and investors in general. We have participated in different calls, webinars and market events and we keep our webpage updated with weekly results of auctions, press releases and presentations.
Czech Republic	Ministry of Finance transparently communicates its funding strategies and operations (including changes) via Primary Dealer Committees meetings as well as per individual consultation with market participants. Apart from the regular publication of the Czech Republic Funding and Debt Management Strategy in December and its update for the second half of the year in June, the Ministry published an extraordinary update of Strategy in April in connection with an approval of new act on state budget which significantly increased planned budget deficit for 2020.
Denmark	We provided an update to the funding strategy middle of March 2020 and an analysis of the funding need and strategy middle of April 2020.
Estonia	Usual communication through the press.
Finland	Regular updates on funding requirement on website, also regularly updating an investor presentation available on the website
France	We published communiques on our website and remained at disposal of our investor base to answer questioned routed by our dealers.
Germany	Published by press release; besides press calls we offer(ed) analyst calls.
Greece	All changes were communicated to the market and its participants during non-deal road shows that took place remotely, through conference calls and video conferences.
Hungary	The DMO updated several times the annual financing plan in 2020 due to the pandemic. The DMO also introduced in 2020 an Investor Presentation updated also quarterly providing more detail of the financing plan published on the website of the DMO. We are holding online discussions with market participants, primary dealers. Even before the pandemic, we have been publishing monthly a 3-months financing plan on our website.
Iceland	We practice regularly dialogue with the market participants. Special announcement was given to the market due to the pandemic. Changes in funding needs within the year are published in the quarterly Icelandic Government Debt Management (GDM) prospect.
Ireland	We announced a new bond funding range for the year, published an updated 2020 funding needs and sources chart and discussed our funding needs with Primary Dealers and other market participants
Israel	Aside from increasing the amounts of domestic issuances and focusing on shorter durations, there was no significant change in strategy. During the first two months of the pandemic the DMO arranged weekly conference calls with the PDs.
Italy	After the outbreak of COVID-19 crisis, in the month of April 2020 we have published on our institutional web site the updated Guidelines on the Public Debt management for 2020. It is a document containing qualitative information regarding Treasury strategies to manage additional financing needs for the year 2020 resulting from the Government’s implementation of extraordinary measures to strengthen the national health service and provide economic support for families, workers and companies, related to the COVID-19 epidemiological emergency. As regards the quantitative information about the additional funding needs, they have been presented in the 2020 Economic and Financial Document.
Japan	In order to ensure stable issuance of additional JGBs in response to COVID-19 pandemic, the Meetings of JGB Market Special Participants were held in advance of those offering. Based on the opinions from those market participants on the maturity composition of the JGBs, JGB issuance plan was revised and announced in a press release.
Korea	Hosting conference calls and holding monthly meetings frequently with foreign-affiliated investment companies, long-term investment companies (including insurance companies etc.) and Primary Dealers respectively.
Latvia	We regularly update our funding needs in the Treasury website (incl. investor presentation) where market participants can get acquainted with the latest information. More frequent communication with primary dealers has been ensured as well.
Lithuania	The Parliament approved the new net change in debt liabilities limit and the Ministry of Finance published it updated borrowing program. The usual instruments or operations hadn’t changed.
Mexico	On one hand, The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (TMFPC) announce through its website all the modification and debt strategies specially trough reducing the weekly auction calendar and also announcing the swaps operations. Also, TMFPC has regular official teleconferences (weekly) with financial institutions in order to asses market dynamics and conditions.
Netherlands	Through press releases on Bloomberg and our website.
New Zealand	Any changes to forecast borrowing programmes or operations are announced via media statements. We publish a Funding Strategy document twice a year, which details any changes in our funding strategy. We also maintain regular engagement with investors and intermediaries, and have held a series of virtual investor meetings.
Norway	As a result of the increased borrowing requirement, changes were made to the strategy and borrowing programme in March and June. Revised documents were published on our website and through the Oslo Stock Exchange announcement service.
Poland	Our funding plans are published before coming months and quarters. Earlier, we contact our primary dealers to present our ideas and ask for their opinions. Our communication in the situation of pandemic was generally kept within these arrangement. In some situations we have special consultations with the market. At the initial stage in March when there was extremely high uncertainty the plan for 2nd quarter was more general than traditionally.
Portugal	The anticipated changes in the funding plan were communicated in the usual quarterly update of the funding programme (“Financing Programme for 2020 – 2nd, 3rd and 4th Quarter Guidelines”, available at https://www.igcp.pt/fotos/editor2/2020/Programa_de_Financiamento/FP20202QEN.pdf; https://www.igcp.pt/fotos/editor2/2020/Programa_de_Financiamento/FP20203QEN.pdf; https://www.igcp.pt/fotos/editor2/2020/Programa_de_Financiamento/FP20204QEN.pdf). This year the April (2nd and 3rd quarter guidelines) and July publications had additional details and information about the supplementary budget and main changes in funding strategy. In addition, bilateral communication with primary dealers and investors became more frequent since the COVID-19 outbreak.
Slovak Republic	Regular communication with Primary dealers. No specific communication with participants outside of Primary dealers.
Slovenia	In times of pandemic taps of benchmark bonds in smaller sizes were used more often than in pre-pandemic times. The funding program, the auction calendar as well as any amendment thereof are published on the Ministry’s website. A Newsletter is distributed to investors and published on the investor dedicated part of the Ministry’s website.
Spain	We have tried to be as reliable and transparent as possible. With the uncertainty on future funding needs brought on by the pandemic’s effects and the availability of new European funding channels (NGEU, SURE), it has been necessary to adapt planned funding needs. We have made all possible efforts to communicate this to the market so they are aware of the constraints surrounding the estimates for future funding needs, so if these change, they are aware that it is not because of poor planning. An example of one of the measures done in debt issuance to confront these problems is the front-loading of expected funding needs to the first half of the year. This puts less pressure on the market in the case of necessary raises in the future funding needs.
Sweden	The communication of funding needs and other operations with the market have not changed in response to the pandemic. In Central Government Borrowing – Forecast and Analysis, published three times a year, the Debt Office presents forecasts for the macroeconomic development and the central government finances in the coming two years. On the basis of these forecasts, the Debt Office calculates how much the government needs to borrow and sets up an issuance plan that is also included in the report. The Debt Office borrows to cover deficits in the central government budget (the net borrowing requirement) and to repay maturing loans. On the fifth working day of each month, the central government budget balance for the previous month is published in a press release. The outcome is compared with the forecast from Central Government Borrowing – Forecast and Analysis and any deviations are explained. In connection with the monthly outcome, the Debt Office also presents the debt development in the report Sweden’s Central Government Debt.
Switzerland	Simultaneous press release, information of the markets via Bloomberg and Reuters and direct communication with key market participants/investors. Communication of new issuance goal for short (bills) and long term funding instruments (bonds), including reasons for additional funding needs. Communication in close cooperation with the SNB (SNB was informed before the markets). With this approach we wanted to strike the right trade-off between transparency and maintaining the necessary flexibility to adjust the funding plan;
Turkey	None for the secondary market trading
United Kingdom	In 2020-21, there were a number of changes with regard to the way the DMO manages its gilt sales activities, as a result of the unprecedented size of its financing remit (which, due to the exceptional circumstances and uncertainty over the overall size of the financing requirement, has been communicated for partial periods rather than the year as a whole). The DMO communicated those changes through its usual channels and principally through the consultation meeting process with the gilt market's primary dealers and end-investors. More specifically, the DMO normally announces a full year remit ahead of each financial year, which is then revised principally at an intra-year fiscal event (e.g. a Budget). However, in 2020-21, due to the level of uncertainty associated with expenditure on COVID-19 and its impact on the economy, it became clear that it would not be practicable for Her Majesty (HM) Treasury to estimate a financing requirement for the whole financial year ahead of the year itself; this was done in November. Consequently, for the first time, the DMO structured its operations to deliver a series of partial extensions to the in-year financing programme initially announced in March 2020.
United States	We continue to communicate primarily through quarterly policy announcements in February, May, August and November. In addition, senior officials may communicate using speeches, such as the recent 2020 US Treasury Market Conference in September.