About us

Who or what is EFFAS

The European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies EFFAS, was set up in 1962 as a professional association for the various nationally based financial analysts societies in Europe. Today, the umbrella organisation comprises more than 20 national societies. Representing more than 14,000 investment professionals, EFFAS maintains its head office in the European financial centre of Frankfurt am Main, the home of the European Central Bank. Find out much more about EFFAS and individual Country members by visiting the EFFAS site.

So what is the European Bond Commission (EBC)?

The European Bond Commission (EBC) was originally set up in 1976 as a Standing Commission of EFFAS to cover bonds.  The EBC, which draws upon the domestic Bond Commissions of the member countries of EFFAS, as well as upon experts from many other places, comprises some of the leading bond experts from each European country.  Members and observers include heads of research, analysts, economists, investors, regulators, futures and options experts etc.  The EBC meets three times a year and its stated goals are:-

1] continuously to raise the standard of bond analysis in Europe, keeping up with the most advanced analytical methods

2] to help to standardise best practice across Europe (eg in calculation methodologies, index structures and rules, instrument features, documentation etc)

3] to improve transparency across all European bond market

Between meetings, work on specific projects takes place in sub-committees and ad-hoc groups.

What does the EBC do?

In order to achieve its goals the EBC publishes books and articles, participates in conferences, sponsors and co-sponsors projects with other international organisations.  Its most recent publications was the second edition of "Constructing and Calculating Bond Indices", which has become the definitive guide for rules-based bond index providers.  The book achieved this status by gathering a committee of representatives not only from the EBC itself, but also from all key bond index-providers, in order to gain a consensus among all market participants while establishing best-practice rules.

Currently the EBC is working with the OECD's working group on the Global Pensions Statistics Project, not only in general, but also more specifically to standardise the methodology and calculations used OECD member-countries to determine pension fund returns.  In addition, the 3rd in a series of books on the impact of the Euro is being prepared, this time focusing on the implications of the recent EU expansion for both the currency and the new member states themselves, with particular regard to bond-market implications.

In addition the EBC is finalising a standardised algorithm for calculating the liquid Eurozone default-risk-free yield curve, as well as working on Zero coupon yield curve construction for a low liquidity bond market with missing data.

For more information on our Projects, just follow the link!

Meetings consist of presentations from both members and guest speakers on a wide range of bond-related topics.  In addition they allow members to exchange views on topics of current interest, as well as to update participants on developments in each other's markets.

Between meetings the EBC's day-to-day business is conducted by the Executive Committee.