More distinct corporate bonds traded across the EU and UK in the first half of 2025 as weekly inactivity also eased among U.S. investment-grade bonds, according to separate market measures.
The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) put EU and UK traded notional at €3.0893 trillion, up 11.1% from the same period in 2024. Its data showed 46,156 distinct bonds traded, compared with 42,449 a year earlier, while the transaction count slipped 0.5% to 3,393,889.
The European figures show trading across a wider range of bonds alongside a slight decline in the number of transactions. The measures cover different markets and periods, so they offer separate views of trading activity rather than a direct comparison.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in its Global Debt Report 2026 that 10% of U.S. investment-grade corporate bonds had no trades during a week in 2025, compared with 30% in 2016. The report attributes the series to a 2025 analysis by Barclays strategist Zornitsa Todorova.
In a separate global measure, average bid-ask spreads narrowed to 33 basis points of par value at the end of 2025 from 77 at the start of 2013. The median fell to 30 basis points from 81. The measure used a 13,334-bond global index proxy, and the OECD said the narrowing also appeared when it followed the same bonds over time.
ICMA’s June 2026 update estimated that EU and UK corporate-bond turnover totaled about €5.7 trillion in 2025, across more than 6.3 million trades. Off-venue activity represented 53% of volume. Dealer-to-client venues handled the remaining 47%, while trades above €25 million continued to skew off-venue.
The OECD says banks have less incentive to keep large corporate-bond inventories after tighter regulation introduced following the financial crisis. Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have gained a larger role, alongside increased electronic execution and portfolio trades. The report points to March 2020 as an earlier stress episode: reduced dealer holdings deepened liquidity pressure, and central-bank intervention helped restore market liquidity.
Research cited by the OECD found average transaction costs for portfolio trades were more than 40% lower than for request-for-quote trades, with the largest differences among less-liquid bonds.
ICMA’s first-half data cover EU and UK transactions reported under MiFID II/MiFIR from January 2022 through June 2025. The association estimates its data include more than 80% of reported secondary bond-market transactions in those markets, while cautioning that the underlying records can contain reporting and classification errors.
