European investors and borrowers have embraced the single currency with enthusiasm. Although bankers warn that the euro's 50 per cent share of all international bond issuance in January is likely to fall slightly in the next few weeks, the currency has clearly established equality with the US dollar at its inception. "No other currency really enters the frame," said a senior US banker.
Given that the 11 "legacy" currencies never surpassed a share of more than 35 per cent of international bond issuance, the euro is clearly seen as more than a sum of its parts.
This is because international investors - including the Japanese who remain large buyers of foreign bonds - prize liquidity, the ability to buy and sell a security with ease.
Of the legacy currencies, only the deutschmark, with a share of between 15 to 20 per cent of international issuance in recent years, provided sufficient liquidity for the large US and Asian funds.
Bond officials point to a recent €3 billion (£2.36 billion) issue by Defpa, the German public sector bank, of which about a third was distributed to Japan. The proportion would have been much lower 12 months ago when the bond would have been denominated in deutschmarks.
In Ireland, the NTMA has redenominated all bonds into euros and is also restructuring its porfolio in an attempt to improve liquduity.
A second factor is that although the proportion of bonds issued in euros will probably fall to a level roughly equal with the share of the US dollar in the next few months, its share of issuance in January coincided with a prolific few weeks of borrowing.
Just over €140 billion (£110.25 billion) worth of bonds were issued, one of the highest-volume months on record. Of this, €69 billion worth was issued in the single currency.
Bankers say that the euro's flying start has been aided by the fact that long term interest rates in the euro zone are significantly lower than those in the dollar market.
This makes it cheaper for companies and banks to price fixed-rate issues against German government bonds, where the 10-year yield is 3.69 per cent, rather than against US Treasury bonds, where the yield on the 10-year benchmark is 4.7 per cent.
On the demand side, European investors have been happy to accept the lower yields in the euro zone because there is an expectation that bond prices will rise in the next few months, thus providing them with capital gains.
"Almost every euro-denominated bond has been sold out on the same day," said Mr Roger Bates, head of Deutsche Bank's European Monetary Union (EMU) project in London.
Meanwhile, European investment banks have surprisingly outperformed their US counterparts as lead managers for bond issues in the first month of the single currency.
According to Capital Data BondWare, the information provider, European banks account for eight of the 10 most prolific lead managers of bonds denominated in the euro.
The top four are Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Paribas and Dresdner, with shares of between 6 per cent and 10 per cent of all underwriting business in the euro. The top two US banks are Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley.
However, senior European bankers say they do not expect to retain their leading position. "We have been very aggressive in the first month," said the official. "But our American friends will pull out all stops to undercut us."
In addition, the league tables may have been exaggerated by the unusually large number of German Pfandbrief bonds - debt secured against mortgages and public sector loans - which is a market dominated by the big German banks.
