A representative part of the members of the Bund Issues Auction Group voluntarily report their trades in Federal securities (Bubills, Schaetze, Bobls, Bunds, green Federal securities and inflation-linked Federal securities) - categorized by type of Federal security traded, by region and by institutional form of the trading partner. Based on trading volumes and net positions, this allows the Finance Agency to identify rough structures of the secondary market trading.

The gross trading volume is derived by adding up the reported sales and purchase volumes of the auction group banks. The net trading volume is the balance of sales minus purchase volumes.

For example, a net position of € -22 bn vis-à-vis brokers corresponds to a € 22 bn higher volume of purchases by auction group members from brokers than sales to brokers. The trading data published here are provisional, as later subsequent submissions may lead to corrections.

Comparison ot Trading Volumes 1st Half-year 2023 vs. 1st Half-year 2022

In the first half-year 2023, trading volume of € 3,611 bn once again exceeded that of the already trading-intensive first half-year 2022 by € 186 bn or 5 %. At the same time, the outstanding volume of Federal securities (excluding the Federal Government's own holdings) increased by a similar 7 %. Compared to the second half-year 2022, there was a 12 % increase in trading volume.

Traditionally, the summer holiday months lead to lower issuing as well as trading activity in the second half-year. The trading volumes of the first half-year 2023 are therefore compared below with the half-year data 2022.

The highest ever outstanding volume of Federal securities is likely to be a significant factor in the trading activity, which has already been much stronger for one and a half years. The significant rise in yields also had a favourable effect. In the important 10-year maturity segment, for example, yields rose by more than 1 percentage point between the first half-years.

The scaling back of the two ECB purchase programmes, which began in the course of 2022, should also contribute to even more active trading in the future, as it can be expected that more and more interest-sensitive and more trading-oriented investors will replace the central bank as a net buyer.

The record issuance volume in the first half-year 2021 didn't last long. After two half-years with only marginally lower issuance activity, more Federal securities were issued in the first half of 2023 than ever before. This development was almost paralleled by the net trading volume, which increased from a high of more than € 178 bn in the first half-year 2021 to around € 199 bn. Compared to the first half-year 2022, the increase amounts to € 35 bn or 21 %.

In the first half-year of 2023, the highest turnover in the statistics going back to 2005 was reported for four types of Federal securities: Treasury discount paper (Bubill) were traded at a volume of € 373 bn, 30 % more than in the first half of 2022. They already reached a record volume of € 359 bn in the second half of 2022. Compared to the first half-year of 2022, Federal Treasury notes (Schatz) recorded the highest growth of all types of Federal securities, rising by 33 % to € 574 bn. Federal notes (Bobl) were traded a quarter more at a volume of € 763 bn. Green Federal securities also saw record turnover - for the sixth half-year in a row since they were first issued. They now have original maturities of 5, 10 and 30 years and thus stand out somewhat from the other short- to medium-term securities with gains in trading.

A look at trading volumes by residual maturity, not shown here, confirms the dichotomy and shows clear double-digit increases in turnover in the one to three year range, hardly any changes for 5 and 7 years and small double-digit losses for residual maturities between 10 and 20 years, a single-digit decline for papers with 30 years residual maturity.

Accordingly, turnover in original 10-year Federal bonds (Bund10), which also includes 7- and 15-year bonds, fell by 10 % to € 1,473 bn in the 2022/2023 half-year comparison. 10-year Federal bonds are still the most important Federal securities. However, their share in the trading volume of all Federal securities, most recently 41 %, is the lowest since the statistics began. The decline in trading is smaller for 30-year Bunds (Bund30) at 6%. However, the volume of € 324 bn achieved here is the fourth highest in the time series, which could strongly result from the doubling of their issuing volume in the full-year comparison 2022/2023. The biggest drop in the six-month comparison of trading volume occurs for inflation-linked Federal securities (ILB) with original maturities between 10 and 30 years. They lose almost a quarter of their turnover to € 62 bn.

As has been the case since 2020 and even before 2016, Treasury discount paper (Bubill) dominated net sales on the money market in the first half-year of 2023 with € 79 bn. Among all Federal securities, the second-highest net sales and at the same time a time series high were recorded for ten-year Federal bonds (Bund10): € 51 bn. This is also 63 % more than a year ago.

Federal Treasury notes (Schatz) and Federal notes (Bobl) were sold on balance by the banks of the issuance auction group to other counterparties in the amount of € 25 bn and € 23 bn, respectively. Compared to the first half-year 2022, this represents a decrease of 24 % and an increase of 26 % for bonds. 30-year Federal bonds (Bund30) peaked at € 16 bn at the half-year mark in 2023 - up 86 % on 2022. Net sales of inflation-linked Federal securities (ILB), where purchases and sales were roughly balanced a year earlier, amounted to € 5 bn. As in 2022, slightly more green Federal securities were sold by other counterparties to the bidding banks than vice versa.

On the counterparty side, asset managers as trading partners continued their comeback for the third half-year in a row: They traded Federal securities with a volume of close to € 1,000 bn - most recently at the record level of € 1,120 bn. The most important counterparties until 2019, "brokers", for which turnover via electronic trading systems is also reported, traded as much as they did last in 2013 with a volume of € 945 bn. Turnover with banks, the third most important traders of Federal securities, increased by 24 % to € 648 bn. Like asset managers, hedge funds recorded the highest turnover in the past three half-years since the statistics began. At € 489 bn, the first half of 2023 marked the best trading result among them.
A volume of € 309 bn was traded with central banks in the first half of 2023. This is 18 % less than a year ago and thus the largest decline among all counterparties. Pension funds, insurance companies and others together account for less than 5 % of total turnover. However, in the past half-year, pension funds made the highest turnover since 2012 - the increase of 28 % compared to the same half-year of the previous year to € 52 bn is the highest among all counterparties.

Central banks still lead the list of the most important net buyers with € 83 bn in the first half-year 2023. However, the decline of 43 % in the first half-year of 2022 and the steady increase in net purchases by asset managers since 2021, most recently to the tune of € 69 bn, could point to a replacement in the near future. Like asset managers, banks (€ 45bn) and hedge funds (€ 46bn) are also reaching new peaks in net purchases as of the half-year 2023. While banks are typically among the top three net buyers, hedge fund purchases are new at this extraordinarily high level, nine times last year's level.  They are followed at a considerable distance by pension funds with € 7 bn in net purchases, others with € 4 bn and insurance companies with € 3 bn.