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 2024 vs. 2023

A Turnover of € 6,738 bn makes 2024 the third-best trading year for Federal securities. This figure exceeds the two previous years, which were almost equal, by another 2 %. As the volume of outstanding Federal securities rose by approximately the same amount, at 3 %, the turnover ratio remained at the previous year's level of 4.0. Thus, on average, a Federal security changed hands four times in 2024.

In particular, the noticeable reduction in issuance volume is likely to have halted the six-year upward trend in trading of Treasury discount paper last year. In relation to the total trading volume of all Federal securities, its share fell from 10 % to 9 % in 2024. The share of trading in Federal Treasury notes also declined from 16 % to 14 %. Inflation-linked Federal securities, which have not been issued since 2024, halved their share of turnover from 2 % to 1 %. They were only traded less in 2006, the year of their market launch.

By contrast, Federal notes remained constant at 21 % of all Federal securities traded. Thanks to a 2 % increase in trading volume, they nevertheless reached a new record high in 2024, as did the three newest Federal securities: the seven- and fifteen-year Federal bonds as well as the green Federal securities. They each gained one percentage point to 4 %, 3 % and 2 %, respectively. Trading in 30-year Federal bonds also rose by 1 percentage point in terms of share, but only reached 10 % – the second-highest level since 2005. With a trading share of 37 % (up 1 percentage point), 10-year Federal bonds continued to stand out as the most important Federal securities.

Apart from the decline in revenue from asset managers by 3 percentage points to 27 %, there were no significant changes at the other institutions. Although turnover with asset managers reached € 1,848 bn, the third-highest figure in the time series, this was only slightly above the turnover of brokers, which rose to € 1,767 bn in 2024. Until 2019, brokers remained the most important trading partners. In addition to brokers, banks also increased their share of trading in Federal securities by one percentage point in 2024. All other counterparties increased their turnover only in absolute terms, which at least helped hedge funds, which have consistently generated 15% of turnover since 2022, to set a new record.

Unlike the previous year, 2024 is not a year of superlatives for counterparties. However, banks and pension funds, which bought € 81 bn and € 20 bn, only €1 bn less than in 2023, followed their record highs with very good second places. The fact that hedge funds still achieved their second-highest trading volume in 2024 despite € 22 bn lower net purchases illustrates the high level at which they were still investing, at over € 40 bn. Insurance companies acquired around € 9 bn in net Federal securities, a level last seen in 2010. After being briefly overtaken by asset managers as the most active buyers of Federal securities in 2023, central banks regained the top spot with a strong increase in net purchases from € 25 bn to € 142 bn. Conversely, asset managers reduced their purchases by almost € 36 bn to just € 90 bn – still the third-highest volume since statistics began.