German Government securities are bearer bonds that are traded daily and a change of ownership is therefore possible at any time. It is not recorded which person or institution the current owner is. However, the investor structure of the Federal government can be estimated from various sources of information. These include public data (e.g. investors' annual reports) and statistics (e.g. aggregate holder data from the ECB's securities holdings statistics), reports on market activity by the Federal government's trading partners, and findings by the Finance Agency, e.g. from its own data, discussions with market participants as well as estimates.
Share of German Government Securities held by their total Volume by Investor Group
| 2024-12-31 | 2023-12-31 | 2022-12-31 | 2021-12-31 | 2020-12-31 | 2019-12-31 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Own holdings of the Federal government | 11 % | 11 % | 12 % | 10 % | 13 % | 6 % |
| Banks - Germany | 5 % | 5 % | 5 % | 5 % | 6 % | 6 % |
| Other investors - Germany | 6 % | 6 % | 6 % | 4 % | 5 % | 6 % |
| Central banks and public investors - euro area | 30 % | 33 % | 38 % | 38 % | 29 % | 26 % |
| Banks - euro area | 6 % | 5 % | 5 % | 5 % | 6 % | 6 % |
| Other investors - euro area | 15 % | 14 % | 14 % | 13 % | 13 % | 15 % |
| Central banks and government sector - third countries | 15 % | 15 % | 15 % | 17 % | 16 % | 19 % |
| Other investors - third countries | 13 % | 9 % | 5 % | 7 % | 13 % | 17 % |
2024 revised model with retrospective new estimates; Differences up to 100% are possible due to rounding.