The OECD has published its Asia Capital Markets Report 2026, finding that renewed trade tensions, tighter global financial conditions and rising geopolitical risks in 2025 and early 2026 increased volatility, affected capital flows and tightened financing conditions across Asian markets. Even so, Asian capital markets remained a major funding source. The region raised USD 3.3 trillion in capital markets in 2025, or 39% of global capital raised, while sovereign bond issuance reached a record USD 4.1 trillion and the stock of outstanding sovereign marketable debt rose to about USD 18.3 trillion. The report says financing patterns shifted as initial public offerings weakened and companies relied more on secondary equity offerings and corporate bonds. Corporate investment was flat overall in 2025 versus 2024, but 44% of listed companies cut investment by more than 10%, with smaller firms hit harder. It also highlights structural weaknesses in regional equity markets, with nearly 40% of Asian listed companies trading below book value, mixed early results from "value-up" programmes, and a limited role for institutional investors, which account for 21% of market capitalisation versus 47% globally. Beyond market structure, the report notes that companies representing 80% of regional market capitalisation disclosed human capital information in 2024, although comparability remains weak, and that Asia recorded the highest regional growth in blockchain-based crypto-asset transactions in 2025 at 69% year on year, increasing concerns around consumer protection, illicit finance and cyber risks. Across its chapters, the report sets out policy considerations focused on deepening public equity and corporate debt markets, strengthening local currency sovereign bond markets and money markets, broadening domestic institutional investor participation, improving the quality and comparability of human capital disclosures, and reinforcing crypto-asset governance, supervision and cross-border co-operation.

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