Information release 13 January 2013

The Central Bank of Ireland, today, released its statistics on market-based financing activities of financial and non-financial firms incorporated in Ireland at end-November 2013. The dataset contains information on the volume of bonds and notes issued during November, as well as the market valuation of outstanding equity shares by sector of issuer at end-November. The sectors of the issuers are: banks; Government; other financial intermediaries; non-financial corporates; and insurance companies and pension funds.

View information release with charts and related data tables.

Summary:

  • The outstanding amount of debt securities issued by Irish financial and non-financial firms, and by the Government sector was €882.1 billion at end-November 2013, a decrease of 4 per cent year-on-year. The outstanding amount of debt securities issued by euro area residents decreased by almost 1 per cent.
  • The outstanding amount of long-term Government debt securities remained broadly unchanged at just over €115 billion, an increase of 30 per cent year-on-year. 
  • Market-based debt financing for the banking sector stood at €71.7 billion in November 2013, a decrease of 15 per cent year-on-year.  
  • Equity shares had an outstanding value of almost €266.2 billion at end-November. This includes quoted shares (€265.9 billion) which saw a year-on-year net increase of 35 per cent. The value of the stock of quoted shares issued by euro area residents increased by approximately 25 per cent.

Government Debt Issuance

Long-term Government debt securities stood at approximately €115.2 billion in November 2013, which represents a year-on-year increase of 30 per cent when compared with November 2012 (€88.4 billion).

Approximately €20.7 billion (or 18 per cent) of the euro-denominated long-term debt will fall due over the next 3 years (see Table 1). Around €11.7 billion (or 56 per cent) of this latter figure is payable to non-resident investors.

Holdings of Government Bonds

At end-November 2013, Irish resident investors held 46 per cent of long-term Irish Government bonds compared with 28 per cent in November 2012.

The Irish banking sector, including the Central Bank of Ireland, was primarily responsible for this increase. This sector accounted for 44 per cent of all holdings at end-November 2013 (or €50.4 billion), compared with 25 per cent at end-November 2012. This primarily reflects the re-structuring of the Promissory Notes earlier this year.

Approximately 28 per cent of all resident holdings will mature within the next 5 years. Furthermore, 33 per cent (or €20.5 billion) of those long-term bonds held by non-resident investors will mature between 2020 and 2023. 

Banking Sector

Market-based debt financing for the banking sector increased by almost €4.6 billion in November 2013, compared to net issuance of €280 million in the preceding month. This increase reflected net issuance of long-term debt securities. 

Approximately €20.5 billion (or 29 per cent) of the total debt securities issued by the banking sector will fall due within the next 12 months.

The outstanding amount of debt securities for this sector saw a year-on-year fall of 15 per cent to €71.7 billion with short-term debt contracting by 26 per cent (Chart 1 & 2). Over the past 12 months, the total outstanding amount of debt securities for this sector across the euro area decreased by approximately 9 per cent.

The outstanding amount of the banking sector's equity securities has increased by approximately 2 per cent (to €20.5 billion) since October 2013. This represents a year-on-year increase of approximately 31 per cent (Chart 3), primarily as a result of valuation changes. 

Non-Financial Corporations

The outstanding amount of debt securities issued by non-financial corporations (NFC) decreased to just over €6.9 billion in the month to end-November 2013.

The year-on-year increase in the outstanding debt securities for NFCs resident in the euro area was approximately 9 per cent.

Approximately €272 million (or 4 per cent) of the total debt securities issued by NFCs will fall due within the next 12 months.

In November 2013, the value of the quoted shares outstanding for the NFC sector increased by 10 per cent (to approximately €228.8 billion). This represented a year-on-year increase of 36 per cent. The annual percentage change in market capitalisation for NFCs in the euro area was approximately 22 per cent.

Detailed tables can be found on the Central Bank of Ireland's website here. The data are largely compiled from an ESCB securities reference database, the Centralised Securities Database.

Notes:

The statistics are based on Irish resident sectors issuances of securities where an ISIN code is assigned, irrespective of the market of issue or listing. Non-ISIN information is also provided for monetary financial institutions.

  • Debt securities are broken down according to their original maturity and coupon type. Equity securities are classified into quoted and unquoted securities excluding investment fund shares/units.
  • The difference between month-on-month equity stocks reflects valuation changes transactions in addition to transactions and other adjustments, for example, reclassifications and corrections.
  • The data reflect revisions arising from data quality management activities performed by the Bank, which contribute to improvements in the data.
  • Euro area figures are sourced from the ECB's Euro Area Securities Issues Statistics monthly publication.
  • The methodological notes guiding the compilation of these statistics can be found on the ECB's website at http://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/money/securities/html/index.en.html.

The amounts outstanding increased sharply as a result of two corporate events over the past 12 months. Revisions to the relevant time series will be made in due course and will reflect historic developments.

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