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ADB President Tadao Chino joined the 13 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)+3 finance ministers and the ASEAN Deputy Secretary General in launching AsianBondsOnline, one-stop clearinghouse of information on the rapidly growing sovereign and corporate bond markets in the region.

The launch was held following the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers Meeting, which took place in parallel with ADB’s 37th Annual Meeting in Jeju.

Supported by ADB and financed by the Government of Japan, AsianBondsOnline is part of the ASEAN+3 Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI), a cooperative effort to help develop mature bond markets in the region. ASEAN+3 comprises the 10 members of ASEAN—Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam—plus People’s Republic of China, Japan, and Republic of Korea.

The web site provides a common format for accessing information on market infrastructure, rules and regulations, market activities, market data, and new policies and initiatives for each market as well as the region as a whole. It also provides news and commentary on regional bond markets, and recent economic releases, research, and analyses.

The site “offers investors easy and centralized access to information about a segment of the global financial market that is growing in size and importance,” Mr. Chino said at the launch. “For the first time, concrete steps are being taken at the regional level, by the ASEAN+3 and other groups, to complement individual country efforts in developing bond markets,” he added.

The ABMI aims to enable the private and public sectors to raise and invest longterm capital while effectively managing maturity and currency risks. Deep, liquid bond markets mitigate overreliance on bank lending for corporate financing.

In its first phase of development, AsianBondsOnline will focus on providing links to publicly available information on the Internet. As the site develops, it will expand coverage with more in-depth information, commentary, and analysis.

AsianBondsOnline can be accessed at http://asianbondsonline.adb.org.

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