Lack of liquidity plagues secondary S$ corp bond market

Singapore

LIQUIDITY in the secondary Singapore-dollar corporate bond market remains patchy despite years of development, but there is little agreement in the industry on how to actually bring steady rain to the desert.

The monthly trading volume of Singdollar corporate bonds have actually climbed steadily since 2012, hitting a peak of about S$2.3 billion in July 2014, according to trades recorded through Bloomberg. But volumes fell sharply in the second half of 2014, hitting a year-low of about S$700 million in December. Monthly volumes have since recovered to about S$1.4 billion in June.