Primary Dealers


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Primary Dealers

The Primary Dealers board monitors developments in regulation, policy and market structure that affect the rates markets and formulates industry-wide responses to these developments.

Overview

The Primary Dealers board addresses developments affecting the European government bond market specifically and aims to build consensus within the industry and acts as a bridge between financial market participants and policymakers. AFME advocates with relevant stakeholders in the European debt markets, including institutions such as the European Commission, the European Central Bank, ESMA, European sovereign debt management offices and ministries of Finance.

The board consists of the heads of government bond trading, or their representatives, of Europe's top 27 Primary Dealers in sovereign debt.

Primary Dealers Board Priorities

  • Continue to provide active technical input into the MiFID process
  • Produce educational and technical documents to explain the issues surrounding Europe's governement bond markets
  • Actively participate in industry events which focus on rates issues
  • Monitor developments in other regulations which could impact rates trading, including short selling, CSDR and others
  • To maintain liquidity in national government bond markets that are under stress;
To educate public/press/regulators on the (importance of the) role of the market maker in government bonds within the financial system, and execute the two main Rates annual events (European Government Bonds conference and the DMO offsite event).


European Primary Dealers Handbook
The AFME/Primary Dealers handbook is an invaluable reference work for European government bond market participants, as well as policymakers and journalists. The handbook offers a detailed description of the infrastructure of the primary and secondary markets of 16 European countries and the organisation of each of their primary dealer systems.

Download the full AFME European Primary Dealers handbook.

We are currently working on the update of the Primary Dealers Handbook which will be published in Q1 2024.

Download the Q1 2024 update to the Primary Dealers List for the counterparty type definitions under the HRF.

This Primary Dealers list for the counterparty type definition under the HRF may be subject to change upon DMO feedback.

Download the Harmonized Reporting Format (HRF) Specifications for 2022.
Key Documents:
2022 Data Reports

2021 Data Reports

2020 Data Reports

2019 Data Reports

These reports provide a comprehensive data source with updated statistics of the Government bond primary and secondary markets in Europe (EU28). The reports collate the latest trends of government bond trading volumes, issuance and auctions performance, number of primary dealers, credit quality, and valuations.

2018 Data Reports

2017 Data Reports

Contacts

Victoria Webster

Managing Director, Fixed Income

Rupert Warmington

Senior Fixed Income Advisor, Capital Markets

Anastasios Charalampous

Associate, Fixed Income