MNI INTERVIEW: Bond Sale Flexibility Needed - Ireland's NTMA​

Debt managers may need to make more frequent adjustments to issuance programs, altering maturities and timing of sales, as investors demand higher returns now that the era of large-scale quantitative easing is over, a deputy director at Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency told MNI on Wednesday.

"We may have to show degrees of flexibility in syndication deals and the auction calendar," Anthony Linehan said, noting that certain times may find certain sectors of the debt market curve far easier to access. "If a certain sector of the curve is being squeezed out by investors, we may need to adapt and look elsewhere, show a greater sensitivity to timing.”

Linehan, who overseas funding and debt management, noted that investors will demand higher returns in a new era with limited central bank bond buying and even active quantitative tightening. (See MNI INTERVIEW: Thin Liquidity Complicates Fed Plans To Tighten)

Earlier, Linehan told the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) conference in Brussels that issuance conditions in 2022 had overall been good, despite many challenges and market adjustments.