The US Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hikes over the past more than two years, lifting rates to the highest levels not seen since 2006, have failed to dampen interest in Asia’s fixed income markets. In 2024, buyside firms recognized over 1,200 sellside individuals, according to the latest Asset Benchmark Research (ABR) survey, a 20% increase in the total number of those surveyed compared with a year ago.

With ABR marking its 25th anniversary as the region’s longest-running survey of its kind, the survey, in addition to its normal online version, added a new dimension with the expansion of the voting process for the Best of the Sellside individuals able to be conducted via a recently launched voting function on TheAsset App.

With this new feature, some of the largest buyside firms – pension funds, insurance companies, multilateral institutions, asset managers and commercial banks – actively voted for their picks of the Best of the Sellside on a weekly basis beginning in February 2024 until the survey’s close at the end of August 2024.

Another refresh of ABR’s Best of the Sellside survey is the nearly simultaneous launch of both the Local Currency Bonds Survey and the G3 Bond Survey on TheAsset App. Both markets have maintained their growth momentum, with the outstanding size of Asia’s local currency bond markets crossing the US$25 trillion mark as of end-June 2024. Meanwhile, the outstanding size of the G3 bond market in the region topped US$2.8 trillion at the end of 2023, which is nearly 87% more than the level a decade ago.

For both surveys, the buyside who voted for the Best of the Sellside individuals were also asked to identify the attributes they most value. For respondents to the Local Currency Bond Survey, with regard to the research function, accuracy of calls, industry knowledge, and independence and objectivity were deemed the most important attributes. For the buyside for G3 Bond Survey, timely analysis takes the place of independence and objectivity as the third most appreciated attribute.

With regard to the sales function, the buyside for the Local Currency Bond survey picked market/product knowledge, good pricing and speed of response as the three most important attributes. For the buyside for the G3 Bond Survey, good pricing came first, followed by accessibility and market/product knowledge.

For the trading function, the buyside respondents to the Local Currency Bond survey placed importance on accuracy of pricing, market expertise and speed of execution as their top three attributes. For the buyside of G3 Bond Survey, accessibility took the place of speed of execution as the third most important attribute.

This year’s ABR Best of the Sellside is publishing its inaugural ranking for Local Currency Bond Survey best international banks. For the G3 Bond Survey, a ranking of the best banks, based on their research, sales and trading functions, is also now available.

ABR’s Best of the Sellside canvasses the views of the buyside across the research, sales and trading functions as well. In the case of the Local Currency Bonds Survey, it covers 10 markets – offshore renminbi, onshore renminbi, Hong Kong dollar, Indian rupee, Indonesian rupiah, Malaysian ringgit, Philippine peso, Singapore dollar, New Taiwan dollar and Thai baht. The G3 Bond Survey similarly covers the functions of research (economist/strategist and analyst), sales and trading for the offshore bond market. In addition, it runs a separate ranking for the Best G3 Syndicate Manager.

ABR’s Best of the Sellside individuals are tabulated based on the views of the buyside respondents, collated via online survey and TheAsset App voting function. The votes received by the sellside individuals are then weighted according to the rating of the investor casting the vote, the frequency of votes received from the ranked investor, and the average number of sellside individuals the investor voted on during the survey period.

To view all of this year’s winners and ranked sellside houses, please log on to TheAssetApp and click on the vote icon.

The Asset Benchmark Research’s Best of the Sellside annual gala dinner in honour of the winning individuals and the top sellside houses will be held on the 7th of November 2024 at the Four Seasons in Singapore. Seats are limited. To attend the gala dinner, please contact us at celebrate@theasset.com.