Euroclear and Serbia’s Ministry of Finance have signed an agreement to establish the appropriate market conditions for efficient local currency debt issuance.
The deal will allow Serbia to eventually create a Eurocleable link, which will, in turn, facilitate international investment into the Serbian bond market.
This will allow access to foreign investors into the domestic market in a more secure and standardised way which will result in an increase in capital, higher trading volumes and lower yields in secondary markets.
According to Euroclear, this will drive further capital market efficiencies including a possible credit rating upgrade and inclusion in various bond indices.
Sinisa Mali, Serbia’s minister of finance, said that formalising its cooperation with Euroclear is “an exciting start to 2020”.
Mali commented: “This partnership is an important piece in our overall strategy to drive down the cost and increase demand for our sovereign debt, grow and diversify the international investor base, improve preconditions necessary for further capital market development in the Republic of Serbia, and ultimately secure an investment-grade rating in the near term.”
Sudip Chatterjee, head of global capital markets, Euroclear commented: “We are extremely pleased to be working with the Serbian Ministry of Finance. Our goal is to support the long term objective of the Serbian market of increasing liquidity, diversifying the international investor base and strengthening the local sovereign debt market.”
