Federal notes ("Bobls")

Profile

Maturity: 5 years

Income: fixed annual interest payment

Redemption: at par value

Price risk: medium

Issuer risk: very low

Federal notes (Bobls), which have maturities of five years, represent the middle of the German Government yield curve.

Bobls as a proportion of currently tradeable Government debt

Primary market

After Bunds, Bobls are the Federal Government's second most important source of funding. Two new series will be issued in 2020, too.

In 2019, € 41 bn or about 20 % of the annual issuance volume (including inflation-indexed Government securities) was issued as Bobls on the capital market. As in 2018, at year-end 2019 their share of the outstanding debt amounted to around 17 %. 2019, the issuance volume of Bobls will decrease by € 5 bn to € 36 bn, representing about 17 % of the total issuance volume of across all Government securities.

According to the previous year or to the 10-year Federal bonds issuance pattern there will be two new series of Federal notes again in 2020, auctioned in January (series 181) and July (series 182). After a first issuance volume of € 4 bn both Bobls with maturities on 11 April and 10 October 2025 will be reopened four and five times. Series 181 will be reopened once with an auction volume of € 4 bn and three times with an auction volume of € 3 bn until it reaches a final outstanding volume of € 17 bn, Series 182 will be reopened five times with an auction volume of € 3 bn until it reaches a final volume of € 19 bn.

Bobls as a proportion of total issuance volume in 2020

In contrast to the issuance volumes of nominal bonds which already had been fixed within the issuance calendar for the whole year, the issuance amount of the inflation-linked bonds is specified on a daily basis. So in this chart their share increases during the year with each new issuance of an inflation-linked bond (whereby the shares of the nominal bonds decrease slightly).

Secondary market

As at the end of 2019, Bobls accounted for € 187 bn of tradable German Government securities in circulation. Thereof each security comprised a volume of € 16 to 21 bn.

In 2018, Bobls made up about 16 % (€ 749 bn) of the trading volume in German Government securities of a representative share of the banks making up the Bund Issues Auction Group. 2017 their share amounted to about 18 % (€ 870 bn).

Currently tradeable five-year Federal notes

The terms of issue for Federal notes are available within the security master data after clicking on the corresponding ISIN.