ICMA publishes its semi-annual report that provides detailed data on EU and UK sovereign bond market trading activity
28 April 2026 ICMA’s Secondary Market Practices Committee (SMPC) has published the Sovereign Bond edition of its semi-annual European Bond Market Data report for H2 2025. The latest report presents a full data set of sovereign bond trading activity for 2025, along with a historical data series dating back to January 1, 2022.
The report will be published in two separate editions: a sovereign edition (this report), and a corporate edition (to follow).
Key findings
The data show continued strong growth in trading activity, with total trading volumes (notional value) reaching €70.7tn in 2025, of which €34.1tn was traded in H2. This represents a 39% increase in volumes versus H2 2024 and a 17% rise in trade count. We also observe a shift toward larger trade sizes.
After declining from 2022, average trade sizes increased notably in 2025, reflecting stronger growth in traded volumes relative to trade count. The analysis also confirms the increasing electronification of European sovereign bond markets. 50% of volumes and 60% of transactions were executed on trading venues in 2025, with continued growth in both D2C and D2D electronic trading channels since 2022.
The report also highlights the rich diversity of the European bond ecosystem. US Treasuries dominate European secondary trading, with US sovereign bonds accounting for 35% of total volumes. These are followed by Italy (22%), UK and Germany (10% each), and France (9%).
This report, which follows the report published for H1 2025, provides 48 months of bond market data, covering the period January 2022 through to January 2026. ICMA believes that this latest data set provides a more accurate representation than the previous report.
ICMA commits to updating this report on a semi-annual basis in order to be able to track long-term trends in secondary bond market structure and activity. ICMA also expects that in time both the depth and quality of the underlying data will improve, particularly as reports such as this seek to present a definitive picture of the European bond markets.
More information about the SMPC can be found here.
