2023-　
ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum Brief Series

31 JANUARY 2023 | PUBLICATION (NEW)

　ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum Brief No. 1 — The Professional Bond Market: A Practical Introduction

　This brief serves as an introduction to professional bond markets in ASEAN+3 economies, explaining debt market terminology, outlining how regional bond markets operate, and detailing their merits for investors, issuers, and policymakers.

31 JANUARY 2023 | PUBLICATION (NEW)

　ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum Brief No. 2 — Professional Investor Concepts and Categories

　This brief explains what determines a professional bond market investor, explains the rules governing how they operate, and details the vital role they play in developing bond markets in the ASEAN+3 region.

24 JULY 2023 l PUBLICATION  (NEW)

    ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum Brief No. 3 — Fundamentals of Disclosure in the Bond Market (adb.org) 

     This brief explains bond market disclosure, outlines its various forms, and details how it helps maintain market integrity and protect investors in ASEAN+3 economies. 

11 December 2023|  PAPERS AND BRIEFS  (NEW)

   ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum Brief No. 4 — Acceptance and Use of English in the Bond Markets

     This brief explains why ASEAN+3 bond markets should consider using English as a common language to attract more professional investors, boost liquidity, and support the future creation of an intraregional market. 

Explanation

The ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum (ABMF) was established in 2010 under the Asian Bond Markets Initiative by the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers, with a mandate to support the development of regional local currency bond markets. Since then, ABMF has acted as a platform for dialogue among public and private sector stakeholders in regional bond markets and promoted the exchange and evaluation of ideas among finance ministries, securities regulators, securities exchanges, depositories, custodian banks, underwriters, and other market intermediary organizations. ABMF discussion outcomes have helped to address common issues and formulate policy recommendations.

The Asian Development Bank publishes the ASEAN+3 Bond Market Guide series, which was created and is updated by ABMF, for interested parties. The economy-level bond market guides serve as reference material to learn more about individual regional markets' development, help address misperceptions, and disseminate regional bond market information to a larger audience. ABMF has proposed, agreed on, and helped implement the ASEAN+3 Multi-Currency Bond Issuance Framework as one practical initiative toward harmonizing the professional bond markets in ASEAN+3 member economies.

As part of its efforts, ABMF created the Working Group for Comparative Capital Market Law and Regulations to research market foundations and practices. The working group are sharing observations and policy input with constituents and the public, particularly on the regional professional bond markets. 

Introduction

The ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum Brief (ABMF Brief) series aims to provide insights on professional bond markets, their development, and necessary or desirable components to issuers, investors, market intermediaries, regulatory authorities and policymakers, academia, and other interested parties.[1]

ABMF Briefs (No.1 - No.3) have focused on an introduction to professional bond markets, explained the concept of professional investors and their categories, and detailed fundamentals of disclosure in the bond market. 

[1] The brief series uses the term “bond market” as the market for debt instruments with a maturity of more than 1 year, in contrast to the money market, which centers on debt instruments with a tenor of less than 1 year. At the same time, some markets in the region may regard commercial paper or similar products, being debt instruments with a tenor of less than 1 year, as bonds in terms of tracking statistics and for trading in the bond market.