New website to help investors buy bonds in Asian markets

Potential investors -- be they institutional, retail, local or foreign -- can buy and trade Asian government securities through the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) AsianBondsOnline website.

In the website's How to Buy Bonds section, investors are guided on the procedures of bond trading in 10 Asian markets -- China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"This is the first time a primer covering such a wide array of Asian markets is available to the investing public in one place online," said Pradumna B. Rana, senior director of ADB's new Office of Regional Economic Integration (OREI), in a statement.

"Information provided in this section will enhance the supply of and generate demand for East Asian local currency bonds and reduce the double mismatch problem."

Supported by ADB and financed by the Japanese government, AsianBondsOnline, which was launched on Tuesday, is part of the ASEAN+3 Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI), a cooperative effort to help develop mature bond markets in the region.

Currently, How to Buy Bonds is limited to government bonds and securities. AsianBondsOnline will be expanded to corporate bonds and other debt instruments in the future.

To check out the website, visit http://asianbondsonline.adb.org/. -- JP