BIS International Debt Securities — Global Outstanding
Total international debt securities outstanding by issuer nationality, sourced from the Bank for International Settlements WS_DEBT_SEC2_PUB dataset. Covers bonds and notes issued outside the issuer's domestic market, reported quarterly in USD-equivalent billions.
Data
| Period | Total (USD bn) | YoY Change | US (USD bn) | UK (USD bn) | Japan (USD bn) | China (USD bn) | Germany (USD bn) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2025 | 32719.8 | +11.9% | 6224.6 | 3408.6 | 819.1 | 1000.2 | 2144.4 |
| Q1 2025 | 30877.9 | +6.6% | 5949.9 | 3200.7 | 785.7 | 1012.8 | 1966.5 |
| Q4 2024 | 29665.9 | +3.1% | 5643.2 | 3066.7 | 772.5 | 1029.4 | 1869.3 |
| 2023 | 28784.1 | +5.2% | 2287.6 | 968.2 | 490.8 | 457.7 | 354.9 |
| 2022 | 27356.8 | -1.7% | 2200.3 | 959.4 | 479.0 | 528.9 | 362.8 |
| 2021 | 27820.1 | +3.3% | 2091.7 | 959.2 | 490.5 | 592.5 | 411.3 |
| 2020 | 26935.0 | +8.6% | 1754.6 | 898.9 | 453.9 | 574.9 | 423.0 |
| 2019 | 24791.3 | +4.3% | 1664.7 | 882.9 | 434.6 | 515.2 | 468.5 |
| 2018 | 23759.4 | +1.4% | 1562.2 | 846.2 | 388.9 | 425.8 | 476.7 |
| 2017 | 23437.1 | +8.6% | 1353.9 | 804.5 | 354.3 | 356.4 | 518.6 |
| 2016 | 20968.8 | -1.0% | 1328.8 | 784.3 | 285.1 | 264.3 | 505.8 |
| 2015 | 20851.8 | -6.4% | 1312.4 | 739.9 | 247.5 | 228.6 | 465.9 |
About this Dataset
Global international debt securities outstanding reached $32.7 trillion (USD equivalent) in Q2 2025 — up 11.9% from $29.2 trillion a year earlier — the fastest year-on-year expansion since the post-pandemic issuance surge of 2020. Net new supply of $1,842 billion in the quarter, following $1,212 billion in Q1 2025, reflects a broad-based return of sovereign, supranational, and high-grade corporate borrowers to international markets as rate volatility subsided and spread conditions tightened. The market has grown roughly sevenfold since Q1 2000, when total IDS outstanding stood at $4.8 trillion, reflecting the progressive internationalisation of corporate and sovereign borrowing and the expansion of the global institutional investor base.
USD-denominated international debt securities accounted for $14.9 trillion — 45.4% of the $32.7 trillion total — as of Q2 2025, with EUR-denominated securities at $13.2 trillion (40.5%). The USD share peaked at 47.9% in Q4 2024 before a partial rebound in EUR-denominated supply pushed the dollar’s proportion back toward its longer-run range; the dollar’s structural dominance in cross-border debt markets nonetheless means that Federal Reserve policy transmits directly to refinancing costs for borrowers in Sao Paulo, Seoul, and Singapore, not only New York.
The nationality-basis breakdown shows broadening supply across issuer countries. US-nationality issuers lead with $6.2 trillion outstanding as of Q2 2025 — up 11.0% year-on-year from Q2 2024 — reflecting the deep integration of US financial institutions and multinationals with offshore capital markets. United Kingdom-nationality issuers held $3.4 trillion, Germany $2.1 trillion, and Japan $819 billion. China’s outstanding balance continued to decline to $1.0 trillion in Q2 2025, down from $1.09 trillion at end-2023, as the property sector deleveraging cycle has structurally reduced offshore bond issuance by Chinese real estate developers who were among the most prolific high-yield USD issuers in the pre-2022 era. Q4 2024 registered a transient dip to $29.7 trillion (USD equivalent) — the only down-quarter in the current cycle — partly reflecting year-end EUR/USD exchange rate movements that mechanically depressed the USD equivalent of non-dollar securities.
- Dataset: BIS WS_DEBT_SEC2_PUB, sourced from national central banks, regulatory agencies, and reporting dealers; classified by BIS using the international/domestic distinction defined in the Handbook on Securities Statistics
- Methodology: A security is classified as international if at least one of registration location, governing law, or listing location differs from the immediate issuer’s country of residence
- Issuer basis: Nationality principle — securities attributed to the ultimate parent’s country, not the SPV or issuing entity’s country of registration
- Currency reporting: Values expressed in USD equivalents using end-of-period exchange rates; USD-denominated series uses issue currency = USD
- Temporal coverage: Q1 2000 to Q2 2025 (this page); BIS series extends back to 1993 for some sub-series
- Geography: 50+ issuer nationalities; this page shows top-five country breakdown plus global total
The market’s behaviour through the 2022–2025 rate cycle demonstrates the asymmetric sensitivity of IDS to dollar policy. Total IDS outstanding (in USD equivalent) declined from $27.8 trillion at end-2021 to $26.1 trillion by Q3 2022 — driven by two concurrent forces: the USD appreciation that mechanically reduced the USD-equivalent value of EUR, GBP, and JPY-denominated paper, and the sharp reduction in new issuance by rate-sensitive EM borrowers facing prohibitive funding costs. The recovery to $32.7 trillion by Q2 2025 reflects a combination of the partial reversal of dollar strength, the return of high-grade borrowers to the market as rate volatility subsided, and structurally rising supply from developed-market sovereign and agency issuers. For fixed income investors, the BIS IDS statistics are the authoritative source for sizing the offshore bond supply universe, tracking cross-border issuance trends by sector and nationality, and calibrating exposure limits in global credit portfolios.