NTMA ready to issue annuity bonds

The National Treasury Management Agency is to begin issuing annuity bonds to Irish-based pension funds in the coming weeks in what would be another significant step towards an anticipated wholesale return to the long-term bond markets next year.

The agency, which is responsible for Government borrowing and the national debt, said it was open to issuing such bonds as long ago as the beginning of last year but said yesterday that appetite has now picked up for such products in the domestic markets.

Furthermore, the move is not reliant on new, slow-moving sovereign annuities legislation, aimed at making Irish-issued bonds more attractive to domestic pension funds.