ICMA has published its third semi-annual report on European Secondary Bond Market Data. Using...
Going Dutch: A Closer Look at Amsterdam’s Overlooked Bonds
Dutch Government Bonds may not always command headlines, but they plays an important role in Europe’s debt markets. In this piece, our Quant Lead - Vidal Mehra, takes a closer look at this often-overlooked market, uncovering what the data says about market share and recent curve shifts.
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"Flying back over the North Sea, following a recent trip to Amsterdam, my mind turned to the rarely discussed subject of Dutch Government bonds.
As per usual, prior to take off one of my fairly standard rituals is to check the latest 10 or 30 year yields, but typically my focus is on UK Gilts, US Treasuries or German Bunds. I first wanted to see what percentage of activity (by notional volume) Dutch Government Bonds made up of the EU total.
We can see, by looking at MiFID data that for the YTD has consistency been around the 2-3% mark, with absolute volumes significantly below the likes of Germany, France and Italy.
(Source: Yields calculated with Propellant Analytics Suite (Beta), data is for August 2025 up to and including Tuesday 26th)
I also thought it would be interesting to see if the Dutch Government bond curve shifted much, as there has been plenty of media commentary on long end yields in particular, with France, the US and UK all frequently appearing in the news and we can see that the curve has steepened, with the vast majority of activity (unsurprisingly) around the 10 year point.
Given the ongoing macro themes, the majority of focus continues to be on the likes of France, Japan, the UK and the US, however I wanted to highlight that using MiFID data we can gain valuable insight into less liquid government bonds too."
If you would like to find out more about how to gain insights from MiFID data, please contact Propellant via info@propellant.digital.
Disclaimer: Nothing contained in this article (including references to specific securities) constitutes a recommendation to engage in any activity and nothing should be taken as investment advice.