Domestic Debt Market Development Training Course

Duration 10 days 18 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Public debt managers, Treasury officials and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-TI-019

Before you join: Participants should have working familiarity with government finance, fixed-income instruments or treasury operations.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Domestic debt markets give governments, public agencies and major issuers a dependable source of local-currency finance while supporting monetary policy transmission, financial-sector development and investor confidence. Weak market design can produce failed auctions, fragmented benchmark curves, excessive refinancing pressure, poor price discovery and concentration in a small group of banks. Market development requires coordinated decisions on debt strategy, issuance calendars, auction rules, settlement infrastructure, investor relations and regulation.

This course examines how domestic government debt markets are designed, operated and strengthened. Participants work through the full market architecture: debt management objectives, medium-term debt strategy, instrument selection, primary issuance, auction management, primary dealer arrangements, secondary-market liquidity, yield-curve construction, clearing and settlement, and market-risk monitoring. The programme also addresses the links between fiscal policy, central-bank operations and public debt management, including coordination safeguards that preserve clear institutional mandates.

Participants use realistic cases based on sovereign treasury operations, central-bank liquidity management and local-currency bond-market reform. They interpret debt portfolios, build a borrowing plan, set an annual issuance calendar, assess auction outcomes, analyse investor demand and diagnose barriers to secondary-market trading. Short technical briefings are followed by case work, group analysis, market simulations and application planning. Each participant leaves with a domestic debt market development dossier containing an issuance plan, market diagnostic, risk indicators and reform priorities suitable for adaptation to their institution.

The course is designed for treasury, debt-management, central-bank, regulatory and financial-market professionals who already work with public finance, fixed income, banking or capital markets. It is equally relevant to advisers supporting sovereign issuers, development-finance programmes and institutional investors operating in developing or reforming domestic debt markets.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess domestic debt market maturity using the DeMPA and market-development diagnostic criteria
  • Prepare a medium-term debt strategy using cost-risk analysis and portfolio scenarios
  • Design an annual borrowing plan with instrument mix, issuance volumes and auction dates
  • Apply uniform-price and discriminatory-price auction methods to government securities issuance
  • Construct benchmark yield curves from auction results and secondary-market price data
  • Evaluate primary dealer performance using quoting, participation and distribution measures
  • Analyse refinancing, interest-rate and liquidity risk using debt portfolio indicators
  • Present a domestic debt market development dossier with sequenced reform actions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce defensible borrowing and issuance recommendations for senior treasury decision-makers
  • Interpret auction and investor-demand signals before adjusting issuance tactics
  • Discuss debt-market reforms credibly with central banks, dealers and development partners
  • Apply portfolio risk indicators to identify refinancing and interest-rate vulnerabilities
  • Build a practical record of work through a completed market development dossier

For your organisation

  • Improved alignment between financing requirements, debt strategy and annual issuance plans
  • More predictable auction programmes that support investor participation and price discovery
  • Earlier identification of refinancing concentrations and interest-rate repricing exposures
  • Stronger coordination among debt offices, central banks, regulators and market infrastructure operators
  • Prioritised reform actions for improving domestic funding capacity and secondary-market liquidity

Course modules

18 modules over 10 days

Participants can map the institutions, instruments and operational links that determine domestic debt market performance.

  • Functions of domestic debt markets in public financing and monetary operations
  • Institutional mandates for finance ministries, debt offices and central banks
  • Market participants: issuers, dealers, investors, custodians and central counterparties
  • Legal authority for borrowing, guarantees, securities issuance and investor protection
  • Money-market foundations supporting government securities trading and collateral mobilisation
  • Development stages from captive markets to competitive market-based financing
  • Diagnostic indicators for depth, liquidity, access, efficiency and resilience

Participants can define debt management objectives, governance arrangements and decision rights for domestic borrowing.

  • Statutory debt-management objective: meet financing needs at prudent cost-risk
  • Governance roles for strategy approval, execution, reporting and audit
  • Front, middle and back office segregation of duties
  • Debt management committee terms of reference and escalation thresholds
  • Fiscal agent agreements governing central-bank operational support
  • Conflict controls between debt issuance and monetary policy operations
  • Public reporting practices for debt operations and contingent liabilities

Participants can analyse a domestic debt portfolio and identify material cost and risk exposures.

  • Portfolio composition by instrument, currency, holder, maturity and interest basis
  • Average time to maturity and average time to refixing
  • Refinancing profile analysis using redemption buckets and maturity concentration
  • Interest-rate exposure under fixed, floating and inflation-linked instruments
  • Cost-at-risk and debt-service sensitivity under market shock scenarios
  • Investor concentration measures using holdings data and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index
  • Contingent liabilities and guaranteed debt incorporated into fiscal risk analysis

Participants can prepare a medium-term debt strategy that compares feasible funding portfolios.

  • IMF–World Bank MTDS analytical framework and baseline debt portfolio
  • Macroeconomic assumptions for inflation, exchange rates, rates and financing needs
  • Alternative borrowing strategies defined through instrument and maturity choices
  • Cost-risk analysis under interest-rate, growth and exchange-rate shocks
  • Strategic benchmarks, risk indicators and approved tolerance ranges
  • Choosing a preferred strategy from affordability and vulnerability evidence
  • Translating strategy decisions into annual borrowing and issuance parameters

Participants can link government cash forecasting to short-term borrowing and issuance decisions.

  • Treasury single account design and visibility over government cash balances
  • Rolling cash forecasts built from revenue, payroll and expenditure schedules
  • Financing-gap calculation from fiscal flows, redemptions and cash buffers
  • Cash buffer policy balancing liquidity protection against carry costs
  • Treasury bills, deposits and repos for short-term cash management
  • Coordination protocols between cash managers, debt managers and central banks
  • Unexpected cash shocks and contingency funding decision rules

Participants can select domestic debt instruments suited to issuer objectives and investor demand.

  • Treasury bills, fixed-rate bonds, floating-rate notes and inflation-linked bonds
  • Instrument choice against refinancing, interest-rate and inflation risk objectives
  • Maturity points supporting benchmark formation and yield-curve continuity
  • Coupon frequency, day-count conventions and redemption structures
  • Reopening policy for building sufficiently large benchmark issues
  • Retail savings instruments and their cost, access and distribution trade-offs
  • Islamic government securities structures: sukuk asset and cash-flow considerations

Participants can build an annual domestic borrowing plan and transparent issuance calendar.

  • Gross financing requirement derived from deficit, maturities and cash policy
  • Domestic and external funding split assessed against strategic constraints
  • Annual issuance calendar with maturities, volumes, dates and reopening decisions
  • Quarterly issuance adjustments triggered by cash forecasts and market conditions
  • Benchmark build-up targets matched to projected investor absorption capacity
  • Publication standards for borrowing plans and auction calendars
  • Contingency issuance options for disrupted markets and funding shortfalls

Participants can select auction methods and manage an issuance process from announcement to allotment.

  • Competitive and non-competitive bids within government securities auctions
  • Uniform-price versus discriminatory-price auction allocation methods
  • Bid submission rules, cut-off yields and allotment algorithms
  • Auction announcements specifying security terms, volume and settlement date
  • Tail, bid-to-cover ratio and dispersion as auction outcome indicators
  • Greenshoe options and discretion policies for accepted volumes
  • Auction cancellation criteria, communication protocols and market-confidence considerations

Participants can design primary dealer obligations, privileges and performance monitoring arrangements.

  • Primary dealer objectives: distribution, market making and price discovery
  • Eligibility criteria covering capital, systems, expertise and governance
  • Obligations for auction participation, two-way quotes and reporting
  • Privileges including exclusive auctions, securities lending and information access
  • Performance scorecards using participation, quoting and turnover metrics
  • Sanctions, suspension and termination procedures for persistent underperformance
  • Avoiding dealer concentration and conflicts in primary-market allocation

Participants can assess investor demand and formulate measures to broaden the domestic investor base.

  • Investor segmentation across banks, pension funds, insurers, funds and households
  • Liability structures shaping institutional investor maturity and liquidity preferences
  • Foreign investor participation: benefits, volatility channels and market-access requirements
  • Investor relations programmes using calendars, presentations and regular data releases
  • Tax treatment effects on investor returns and instrument demand
  • Prudential rules influencing banks' government securities holdings
  • Demand surveys identifying barriers to participation and preferred instruments

Participants can derive and interpret yield-curve information for issuance and risk decisions.

  • Clean price, dirty price, accrued interest and bond yield conventions
  • Bootstrapping zero-coupon curves from government securities market prices
  • Par yield curves, spot curves and forward-rate interpretation
  • Interpolation choices between liquid benchmark maturity points
  • Term premium, liquidity premium and credit-risk components of yields
  • Curve movements: parallel shifts, steepening, flattening and twists
  • Using yield-curve evidence to time maturities without speculative trading

Participants can diagnose secondary-market liquidity and select measures that improve tradability.

  • Liquidity measures: turnover ratio, bid-ask spread, quote depth and trade frequency
  • Benchmark issue size and reopening policies supporting secondary-market liquidity
  • Buyback and switch operations for reducing fragmented outstanding lines
  • Securities lending arrangements that reduce settlement fails and short-selling constraints
  • Repo markets supporting dealer inventory finance and collateral circulation
  • Electronic trading platforms, dealer voice markets and trade reporting
  • Market-maker incentives balanced against transparent competition and conduct controls

Participants can assess post-trade arrangements and identify operational risks in securities settlement.

  • Trade lifecycle from execution, confirmation and matching through settlement
  • Delivery-versus-payment models and principal-risk mitigation
  • Central securities depository functions for immobilisation, transfer and custody
  • Real-time gross settlement links for cash-leg finality
  • Settlement cycles, fails management and penalty arrangements
  • Legal certainty for book-entry securities, collateral and netting
  • Business continuity controls for payment, depository and trading infrastructure

Participants can evaluate repo and collateral-market arrangements that support liquidity and monetary operations.

  • Repurchase agreements: sale, repurchase price, haircut and maturity mechanics
  • GMRA concepts for close-out netting and collateral substitution
  • Eligible collateral frameworks and valuation haircuts by asset risk
  • Margin calls, mark-to-market processes and collateral concentration limits
  • Central bank standing facilities and open-market repo operations
  • Securities lending structures for market making and settlement efficiency
  • Legal opinions supporting enforceable collateral and netting arrangements

Participants can specify data, disclosure and infrastructure improvements for credible domestic debt markets.

  • Reference data for securities identifiers, terms, prices and outstanding amounts
  • Auction result disclosures: bids, allotments, yields and participant categories
  • Debt statistical bulletins using maturity, instrument and holder classifications
  • Public debt databases reconciled with fiscal, monetary and settlement records
  • Price dissemination standards supporting transparent valuation and investor confidence
  • Data governance for validation, version control and publication approvals
  • DeMPA indicators for recording, reporting and operational risk management

Participants can identify regulatory and conduct controls needed for orderly government securities markets.

  • Licensing and prudential oversight of dealers, brokers and custodians
  • Market abuse controls covering manipulation, insider dealing and misleading orders
  • Disclosure rules for issuer information, material events and auction terms
  • Know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering controls within securities distribution
  • Suitability requirements for retail government securities products
  • Surveillance alerts based on pricing anomalies, concentration and unusual trading
  • Enforcement coordination among securities regulators, central banks and debt offices

Participants can prepare issuance and communication responses to domestic debt market stress.

  • Stress scenarios covering failed auctions, rate shocks and investor withdrawals
  • Liquidity contingency plans for rollover pressure and settlement disruption
  • Issuance flexibility through bill programmes, syndications and private placements
  • Central-bank backstops: mandate limits, transparency and fiscal-risk implications
  • Investor communication during volatility, policy changes and rating actions
  • Debt buybacks, exchanges and liability-management operations under stressed conditions
  • Post-event reviews converting crisis evidence into procedural improvements

Participants can build, review and present a complete domestic debt market development dossier with prioritised reforms.

  • Market diagnostic using portfolio, investor, auction and liquidity evidence
  • Medium-term debt strategy assumptions, scenarios and risk tolerance indicators
  • Annual borrowing plan, issuance calendar and benchmark development targets
  • Auction, dealer and investor-relations improvements supported by measurable indicators
  • Infrastructure, legal and data reforms sequenced by dependencies and ownership
  • Implementation roadmap with milestones, resources, governance and risk controls
  • Peer review and executive presentation of complete development dossiers

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Domestic debt market diagnostic template
  2. Medium-term debt strategy scenario model
  3. Annual borrowing and issuance calendar
  4. Government securities auction scorecard
  5. Primary dealer performance dashboard
  6. Domestic debt market reform roadmap

Who should attend

  • Public debt managers — responsible for borrowing plans, portfolio risk and market access
  • Treasury officials — coordinating financing needs, cash plans and securities issuance
  • Central bank market operations staff — managing liquidity operations and collateral frameworks
  • Financial market regulators — overseeing market conduct, infrastructure and investor protection
  • Primary dealer and bank treasury staff — participating in auctions and secondary-market trading
  • Development finance advisers — designing public debt and capital-market reform programmes

Skills and tools covered

Debt strategy designAuction managementYield curve analysisPrimary dealer oversightMarket liquidity assessmentDebt risk monitoring

Tools and standards

IMF–World Bank Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy, World Bank Debt Management Performance Assessment, Global Master Repurchase Agreement, Herfindahl-Hirschman Index

How the course runs

Training methodology

Teaching combines focused technical briefings with sovereign debt cases, data interpretation, facilitated group work and market simulations. Participants analyse debt portfolios, auction results, investor concentration and yield-curve evidence using supplied worksheets. Teams develop components of a domestic debt market programme, test decisions against changing financing and market conditions, and receive structured peer and instructor review. Application planning links each method to participants’ own legal mandate, institutional arrangements, data availability and reform priorities.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working familiarity with government finance, fixed-income instruments or treasury operations. They should be able to interpret basic financial statements, percentage changes, maturity profiles and simple yield calculations. Experience in a ministry of finance, debt management office, central bank, commercial bank, regulator, exchange or investment institution is useful. The course does not require prior responsibility for sovereign issuance, advanced bond mathematics, programming skills or access to market data terminals. Participants who have completed introductory public debt management or fixed-income training will be well prepared.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should know basic public finance, treasury operations or fixed-income concepts. Advanced bond mathematics and previous sovereign issuance responsibility are not required.

Bring a laptop for working with supplied templates and, where permitted, a recent borrowing plan, debt bulletin or auction calendar from your institution. Confidential material is not needed.

It suits debt office, treasury, central bank, regulatory, banking and development-finance professionals involved in local-currency funding or government securities markets. Participants benefit most when they can relate the work to an active market-development issue.

General debt management courses often focus on sovereign portfolio strategy and external borrowing. This course gives greater attention to the institutions, instruments, auctions, dealer arrangements, trading liquidity and infrastructure needed for domestic market development.

Participants can use the diagnostic, issuance calendar, auction scorecard and reform roadmap in current planning cycles. The methods also support discussions with central banks, dealers, regulators and development partners.

Training days run from 08:30 to 16:30 and provide about 6.5 contact hours each. The first week establishes strategy, instruments and issuance operations; the second week addresses liquidity, infrastructure, regulation, stress preparedness and the capstone dossier.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.