Italy

Italy

1 Country overview

MTS facilitates a regulated market for the wholesale electronic trading of Italian government bonds and other types of fixed income securities.

2 Instruments

2.1 Italian government bonds

CCTs (floating rate treasury certificate) – CCTs are currently issued with maturities of 7 years with semi-annual coupons. The first semi-annual coupon is decided by the Treasury at issuance and in-line with market rates. All other semi-annual coupons are calculated taking into consideration the yield of the last 6 month Treasury Bill (BOT) issued. Principal on all CCTs is paid at maturity.

BTPs – Fixed rate bonds with maturities of 3, 5, 10 and 30 years. The annual coupon is paid semi-annually on an actual/actual basis

BTPi – Eurostat index-linked bonds, paying semi-annual coupons. The index ratios for these bonds can be found under BTPi – Daily Index Ratios

BOTs – Treasury bills are zero coupon instruments auctioned twice a month. They are issued at a discount from par with maturity of 90, 180 or 360 days. Yield is determined on an actual/360 basis

CTZs – Zero-coupon securities with 18 and 24 months maturity are issued twice a month, together with BOTs

2.2 Non-Italian government bonds

The following instruments are quoted on the MTS Repo platform:

ATS – Austrian fixed rate bonds

BNI – French Eurostat index-linked BTAN

BTAN – French fixed rate bonds

BTC – Belgian zero coupon securities

DEM – German fixed rate bonds

DSL – Dutch fixed rate bonds

DTC – Dutch zero coupon securities

FTB – French zero coupon securities

GIL – German Eurostat index-linked bonds

GTC – German zero coupon securities

IRL – Irish fixed rate bonds

OLO – Belgian fixed rate bonds

OAI – French Eurostat index-linked bonds

OAT – French fixed rate bonds

PTC – Portuguese zero coupon

PTE – Portuguese fixed rate bonds

2.3 Non-government bonds

The following instruments are quoted on the MTS Repo platform:

Asset-backed securities – Instruments collateralised with either mortgages or public sector loans.

Quasi-government bonds – All major euro-denominated EIB's issues and eurobonds issued by the Republic of Italy.

Pfandbriefe, Freddie Mac, KFW, NRW, Kingdom of Denmark, Bank of England and Railway Network securities are listed on MTS Repo.

For a full list of available instruments, click here.

2.4 Minimum lots

Two-way quotes, fill-and-kill orders and fill-and-store orders can be formulated for a minimum quantity equal to EUR 2 million.

Increment quantities for Quotes and Orders can be formulated for EUR 0.5 million/

3 Participants

For a list of participants, click here.

3.1 Requirements

Market makers – Eligible financial institutions must have net assets of at least EUR 39 million and have traded at least EUR 20 billion in bonds quoted on MTS in the preceding year.

Market takers – Eligible financial institutions must have net assets of at least EUR 10 million.

4 Market Hours

Cash Market Hours (CET)

Pre-Market: 7:30am – 8:00am

Trading Hours: 8:00am – 5:30pm

Market Closed: 5:30pm
 
Repo

Market Hours (CET)

Pre-Market: 7:30am – 7:45am

Market Open: 7:45am – 6:30pm

GC allocation window: 6:30pm – 6:45pm

Market Closed: 6:45pm
 
Trade details and statistics are available until 9pm

5 Settlement

Trades on Italian Government bonds settle at Monte Titoli. MTS sends trade messages on behalf of both participants to Monte Titoli that creates the relevant settlement instructions. MTS participants must hold a securities account at Monte Titoli either directly or indirectly through a custodian.

LCH.Clearnet SA and CC&G are available as Central Counterparties: for CCP transactions Monte Titoli sends trade messages on behalf of both participants to the relevant CCP.

The settlement cycle is T+2. The settlement calendar follows the TARGET calendar skipping value date only on TARGET non-business days.