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.

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.

Annual Comparison of Trading Volumes 2022 vs. 2021

The strongest increase in trading volume since the start of the statistics was recorded in Federal securities in 2022. Compared to the previous year, 37 % more Federal securities were traded. The trading volume of € 6,636 bn is the third highest in the time series that began in 2005. Only in the first two years of the statistics more Federal securities changed hands with € 7,318 bn (2005) and € 6,942 bn (2006).

Since the volume of tradable Federal securities (excluding the Federal Government's own holdings) increased by only 5 % to € 1,505 bn in the course of the year, this shows a real increase in trading activity. The turnover rate, which indicates how often a Federal security changes hands on average, increased accordingly from 3.4 in the previous year to 4.4 in 2022.

After the record year of 2021, the second highest issuance volume in the statistics of € 449 bn also led to the second highest net trading volume of € 319 bn in 2022.

Trading of Treasury discount paper rose for the fifth year in a row in 2022 - the last three years alone each marked new records. In the history of green Federal securities, which spans just three years, their trading volume also reached a new high in 2022. Since their first issue in 2020, however, they have accounted for just 1 % of the trading volume of all Federal securities. The highest percentage growth in trading was achieved by Federal Treasury notes in 2022. After recording the lowest turnover since the start of the statistics in 2021, their trading volume doubled to the highest level since 2008. Thanks to their comparatively short two-year maturity, they were increasingly traded by investors in the environment of the most recent key interest rate increases. Trading in Federal notes increased by two-thirds, while the traditionally highest-volume 10-year Federal bonds were traded one-fourth more. The latter's share of the total trading volume across all Federal securities fell to 45 % in 2022. Although turnover in 7- and 15-year Bunds is also attributed to the 10-years, this is the lowest share since the statistics began. The turnover of 30-year Federal bonds increased by 28 % - in 2022 they reached the second highest turnover since 2005. Only trading in inflation-linked Federal securities decreased by 8 %.

Overall, net trading or net sales across all Federal securities remained at a high level in 2022. The highest percentage growth was achieved by green Federal securities with 20 %. However, this relative increase at a low level did not change the traded volume of € 4 bn. On balance, 11 % more treasuries were sold, which corresponds to an increase of € 5 bn. Net sales of Bund30 were slightly higher.

On balance, marginally fewer bobls were sold. Net sales of Bubills fell by 11 % and Bund10 by 16 % - both, however, from statistical highs in the previous year. A very significant decline to the lowest level since the statistics began was recorded for ILBs, of which only around 10 % of the previous year's volume was sold by the bidder group to other investors in 2022.

Asset managers were the most active counterparties in the trading of Federal securities for the third year in a row in 2022 - after a 55 % increase in turnover, but now with a clearer gap to the "competition". With more than € 2 trillion, they turned over more Federal securities than ever before since the statistics began. The two other traditionally strong trading counterparties, brokers and banks, each increased their turnover by about one third. However, the most significant increase in trading volume of almost 80 % was achieved by hedge funds, which are now almost on a par with banks with a turnover volume of around € 1 trillion. In 2022, hedge funds achieved record turnover for the second year in a row. After slightly more than 2 % in 2009, their share in the trading of all counterparties has now risen to 15 %. Pension funds, others and insurance companies also increased their trading activities at a lower level - only the central banks traded 6 % fewer Federal securities.

The asset managers' impressive comeback in gross trading is also visible in their reinvigorated role as net buyers. The highest increases in net trading volume among all counterparties (€ 65 bn) compared to 2021 also helped asset managers to achieve their highest ever buying balance of € 91 bn. However, central banks remained the most active net buyers since 2006 with € 228 bn in 2022. Although these purchases were an impressive € 162 bn lower than the previous year's record, they are still the second-highest central bank purchases since the statistics began. By contrast, net purchases by banks amounted to just under a quarter of this figure at € 56 bn. However, this is also the third-highest value since 2005, an increase of € 34 bn compared to 2021. Hedge funds were net buyers of € 10 bn in 2022 after net sales of € 5 bn in the previous year. Others, pension funds and insurance companies remained little changed on the net buy side, with net purchases by pension funds and insurance companies in 2022 each at their second-highest levels since the statistics began, ranging from € 7bn to € 17bn.