General Investors

Investors in Asian debt and its traders tend to be locally-based. General investors include commercial and retail banks, government institutions, private corporations, as well as retail investors. Foreign investors are also key participants in the region’s bond markets. To encourage greater investment from outside the region, several regulators offer tax incentives to make local currency debt more attractive.

Some jurisdictions have broadened the investment mandate of government investment agencies to increase demand for local debt instruments. In addition, there is rising demand from local private investors for local-currency instruments, in part because they carry no currency risk from adverse exchange rate movements.

There are plans to issue Asian currency bonds in several domiciles to broaden the investor base, while assisting Asian central banks to purchase debt of other issuers across the region. This adds alternatives and creates new tools for central bank reserve management, and should bolster capital retention within the region.

Asset-Pooling Industries

Government pension schemes and fund management companies are key investors.

Government pension schemes, private pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, and asset management firms are major investors in most markets in the region. Along with banks, these institutions are the major investors in government debt securities. Asia Bond Indicators provide statistics on the investor profile of some markets within the region.

The World Bank report – East Asian Finance: The Road to Robust Markets, linked below, profiles institutional investors in East Asia. It examines pension funds, the insurance sector, and mutual funds (see in particular Chapter 6, “Strengthening the Investor Base”).

Please refer to the Key Market Participants pages of each market to access links to market-specific directories.