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 2021, too.

In 2020, € 40 bn or about 20 % of the annual auction volume (including inflation-indexed Government securities) was issued as Bobls on the capital market. At year-end 2020 their share of the outstanding debt amounted to around 15 %.

According to the previous years there will be two new series of Federal notes again in 2021, auctioned in January (series 183, maturing on 10 April 2026) and July (series 184, maturing on 9 October 2026).The series 183 new issue of € 5 bn will be followed by five taps of € 4 bn each to a total volume of € 25 bn. The series 184 new issue of € 5 bn will be followed by four taps of € 4 bn and one last of € 3 bn to reach a volume of € 24 bn. 

In 2021 both comprise to an annual volume of € 49 bn, € 9 bn more than 2020.

Bobls as a proportion of total issuance volume in 2021

In contrast to the issuance volumes of nominal and money market securities which already had been fixed within the issuance calendar for the whole calendar year, the issuance amount of the inflation-linked securities is specified only right before issuance. So in this chart their share increases over the course of the year with each new issuance of an inflation-linked security whereby the shares of the other Federal securites decrease slightly. Similarly, the issuance volumes from syndicates and the increases of conventional twins of Green Federal securities into the Federal Government's own holdings are only included on the date of issuance. They lift the issuance volume - but not the auction volume.

Secondary market

As at the end of 2020, Bobls accounted for € 210.5 bn of tradable Federal securities in circulation. Thereof each security comprised a volume between € 18.5 to 25 bn.

In 2020, Bobls made up about 16 % (€ 694 bn) of the trading volume in German Government securities of the Bund Issues Auction Group. 2019 their share amounted to about 18 % (€ 751 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.