Annual issuance of cross-border bonds from Asia has increased more than fivefold from USD 107 billion in 2006 to USD 575 billion in 2020. In an effort to understand this remarkable growth, this report explores the evolution of the international bond market in Asia over the last 15 years and the influencing factors contributing to the current picture of overall regional market activity.

The report is in two parts, covering the primary and secondary markets. For the primary markets, this report examines issuances through multiple geographical lenses, by the location of arrangement and execution, the location of listing, the issuer’s major place of business and the issuer entity’s legal place of incorporation. China, India, ASEAN, and Japan, the main subregions in Asia, have all witnessed an increase in issuance volume over the past 15 years. Among them, international bond issuance from China has increased dramatically and now accounts for 40% of the international issuance volume in Asia. The growth of international bond market in Asia has been fuelled in large part by the steady entry of new issuers to the market.

With respect to the secondary market, this report assesses liquidity conditions and then market structure and the dynamics that affect market liquidity. It also provides a short overview of recent market performance, particularly in light of the 2020 Covid-19 related turbulence.

This report supplements two recent ICMA reports:

• The Asia-Pacific Cross-Border Corporate Bond Secondary Market, 2018, which aimed to analyse and document the state and evolution of the international APAC credit markets, primarily from the perspective of USD, EUR, and GBP denominated issuance
• The Internationalization of the China Corporate Bond Market, 2021, which focuses on China’s domestic CNY and offshore (primarily USD denominated) corporate bond markets