Institutions in the Far East now hold more Irish bonds than North Americans, who are longstanding buyers, NTMA chief executive John Corrigan said last week. The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) is looking further to Asia for bond buyers as traditional investors are shunning Irish debt following credit rating downgrades.

Many central banks and large pension funds are barred from owning Irish bonds since the most recent downgrade by ratings agency Moody's in December. Moody's cut Ireland's rating by five notches just weeks after the government accepted a joint EU/IMF bailout package worth €85bn.

The Swiss National Bank was one of the first institutions to react, taking Irish sovereign debt off its list of acceptable collateral for liquidity operations.

Corrigan said the NTMA was preparing for the eventual return to the markets by seeking out new buyers in new locations, such as east Asia.

Senior NTMA officials met their Chinese counterparts in Beijing last year as part of the agency's "normal investor programme", he said.

China has been using its sovereign wealth fund to support bond issues in Greece and Portugal since the euro crisis began last year.