Italy: bonds, indices, credit ratings

The Italian Bond Market is represented by government, municipal and Italian corporate bonds.

The issue and management of Italian national debt are a task of the Treasury department, which is subordinated to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). Within the organizational structure of the Treasury, Directorate II issues government bonds, conducts the management of current debt and interacts with market participants.

Government debt in Italy consists of government bonds of the following types:
BOT (Treasury Bills) - short-term Italian bonds with a maturity period of 3, 6, 12 months, issued at a discount par value.
CTZ (Zero Coupon Treasury bonds) - treasury bonds with a zero coupon and a maturity of 24 months, issued at a discount par value. Since 2021, this type of bond has been replaced by BTP Short Term (depending on the issue they can have coupons or be zero-coupon bonds; maturity: from 18 to 30 months) and it is no longer issued by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
CCT/CCTeu (Treasury Certificates) - treasury bonds with a floating interest rate and a maturity of 5-7 years. The coupon rate is linked to the 6-month BOT auction rate or the 6-month EURIBOR rate.
BTP (Treasury Bonds / BTP Italian bonds) - classic coupon bonds, Italian treasury bonds with a maturity of 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 50 years. The main benchmark of the market is the Italy 10 Years Government Bond yield (BTP 10-years).
BTP Green - new sustainable finance government bonds designed to support, through their proceeds, public expenditures with positive environmental impact, and to contribute at the same time to the country's ecological transition.
BTPI (Treasury Bonds Indexed to European Inflation) long-term treasury bonds linked to the Eurostat Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP).
BTP Italia (Treasury Bonds Indexed to Italian Inflation) - Italian treasury bonds tied to inflation in Italy and created specifically for retail investors. Both coupon payment and nominal payment are tied to the "FOI national index", "Prezzi al consumo per le Famiglie di Operai e Impiegati".
BTP Futura - government securities reserved exclusively to individual savers and other similarly classified investors (the so-called retail market). They are called "Futura" (Future) because they are designed to protect savings and at the same time to support the "future of the country", with particular reference to overcoming the healthcare and economic crisis caused by COVID-19.
BTP Valore - a new family of government bonds dedicated exclusively to individual investors and other similarly-classified persons (i.e. retail market). This type of bonds has coupons which are calculated according to an increasing coupon rate progression (the so-called step-up mechanism), with an additional "loyalty bonus" (premio fedelta) for those who will hold the bonds until maturity.

Italian government bonds are usually placed as follows: via public auction, via a syndicate of investment banks, and via electronic trading platforms. The Treasury usually places government bonds through Italy bond auctions with only occasional initial offerings via syndications. With the introduction of the BTP Italia type, the Treasury also began to conduct placements via the Italian exchange platform.

Concerning the placement of Italian sovereign debt, there are two different types of auction: a "competitive yield auction" and a "marginal price auction". BOTs are placed via a competitive yield auction, while long-term bonds are placed via a marginal price auction. Every year the Treasury publishes the auction calendar of bonds placement for the following year.