German Government securities

The market for German Government securities is widely regarded as liquid, straightforward and clearly structured. With original maturities ranging from six months to 30 years, there are permanently around 70 liquid tradable securities in circulation across virtually the entire yield curve.

Maturities and volumes

German Government securities have maturities ranging from a half to 30 years. After their initial issue in the auction process and usually a number of increases, the capital market securities reach volumes of around € 15 bn to more than € 20 bn.

In the money market segment, the Federal Government basically issues Treasury discount paper (Bubills) with maturities of 6 and 12 months.
Capital market products start with Federal Treasury notes (Schaetze) with a maturity of two years, followed by five-year Federal notes (Bobls) and Federal bonds (Bunds) primarily with maturities of ten and 30 years. In 2020 Federal bonds with maturities of 7 and 15 years have been added. Since 2006, the Federal Government has also been issuing inflation-linked securities (iBobls or iBunds) with maturities of five to 30 years.

German Government securities are generally placed as single issues via auction. New issues with high volumes take place, particularly in the capital market, which are followed by several increases, finally totalling at approximately € 15 billion till up to € 20 billion. Such increases help ensure that there is a high level of liquidity for these securities on the secondary market itself and are also used by the Federal Government to ensure that futures contracts can be delivered on the highly liquid futures market, thereby confirming their important role on the equally liquid repo market.

Characteristics

All exchange-traded securities have fixed maturities with redemption on maturity at the full nominal value, as well as annual fixed interest payments.

The principal characteristics of the German Government securities market are its fixed maturities, and fixed rates of interest in the case of Schaetze, Bobls and Bunds. Inflation-linked Bobls and Bunds also have a fixed (real) coupon. However, nominal interest amounts and repayments are in this case linked to a euro area inflation index. Bubills, in contrast, are issued in the form of discount paper. All German Government securities are issued in the form of debt register claims without paper certificates.

Other characteristics are their eligibility to serve as insurance reserve for trusts and as ECB-eligible assets. Redemption is in each case at par value, with no provision for premature redemption by the issuer through call options or drawings. Inflation-linked Federal securities are redeemed at the nominal value adjusted for inflation indexation. The smallest denomination is € 0.01 and interest is calculated on the basis of the customary methods of ICMA actual/365 or actual/366 for capital market securities and actual/360 for money market paper.

Proportions of outstanding volumes of Government bonds 2013 vs. 2018

Current Benchmark Issues of the Bund

Daily terms, prices and yields of listed issues (PDF)
Overview of outstanding, tradeable German Government securities as of last auction (PDF)
Monthly itemised list of outstanding German Government securities (PDF)
Monthly itemised list of outstanding German Government securities (XLS)