This research provides an overview of the corporate bond market in Indonesia and its specific characteristics. Even though being smaller compared to other ASEAN countries, Indonesia’s corporate bond market is seen to welcome new corporate bond products such as green and sustainability bonds. Key market stakeholders in Indonesia strive to promote diversity in terms of issuers and investors.

The corporate bond markets of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar, or collectively known as BCLM, are still in the nascent stages of development. Among these countries, only Cambodia has local corporate bond issuances. This paper shows the overview of the developments and challenges in their respective corporate bond markets.

Given its internationally recognized financial industry, Singapore’s corporate bond market is already considered as well-developed compared with other countries ASEAN. It is notable that the demand for Singapore dollar denominated corporate bonds is high – driven by both local and foreign investors. Among ASEAN countries, Singapore has attracted foreign corporates to tap into its corporate bond market.

This paper explores the unique characteristics of Malaysia’s corporate bond market. Compared to other countries in ASEAN, Malaysia’s corporate bond market can be considered as a developed one. The domestic corporate bond market is found to be sufficient to meet both the size and maturity requirements of local corporate issuers. The presence of sukuk is also a notable part of Malaysia’s corporate bond market, which provides options to issuers to tap into a diverse range of institutional investors.