SSA Roundtable and EU Interview (December 2025)
Public sector bond issuers navigated what turned out to be a sometimes volatile year in 2025 with aplomb. Many frontloaded issuance to derisk large borrowing programmes which stood them in good stead when choppier markets developed in response to US tariff policy and French political upheaval over its deficit, to name but two influences.
Funding requirements among supranationals and agencies may prove little changed for the year ahead, but a host of factors are already visible that will influence how this group of borrowers approaches the bond market in 2026. Chief among them is the tightness of spreads to government bonds but there are others: further elevated government borrowing to fund defence and possibly even a new entrant to the market to raise money for that purpose; the evolving market for ESG investment; digitalisation of the bond market; and the rotation out of US Treasury holdings by international investors.
GlobalCapital gathered a number of the SSA market’s key issuers in London in November to discuss how they will set about meeting these challenges.
Roundtable participants
| Andreas Becker, head of treasury and pension fund, Ministry of Finance of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia |
| Henry Coyle, senior financial officer, World Bank |
| Francis Dassyras, team lead – funding, European Stability Mechanism/European Financial Stability Facility |
| Jörg Graupner, senior funding manager, KfW |
| Antti Kontio, vice-president, head of funding and sustainability, MuniFin |
| Ales Koutny, head of international rates, Vanguard |
| Jong Woo Nam, senior financial officer, World Bank |
| Sebastien Rosset, senior funding officer, European Investment Bank |
| Patrick Seifert, managing director, global head of corporates and DCM, LBBW |
| Moderator: Ralph Sinclair, chief product officer, GlobalCapital |