There's not much likelihood that the Australian Office of Financial Management will find a way to meet a new, statutory obligation to provide a quarterly list of the ownership of all bonds issued by, or guaranteed by, the Australian government.Earlier this year opposition parties in the Senate forced an amendment to the Guarantee of State and Territory Borrowing Appropriation Act 2009 and which requires a "Public Register of Government Borrowings".There are many impediments to this register and which the AOFM, in crisp language, spelled out in its annual report.The AOFM said while it was consulting with the Treasury and the Australian Bureau of Statistics to establish whether there is a practicable way of providing better information on bond holdings, it listed numerous concerns.This included a lack of willingness of many offshore investors with large holdings of fixed securities to disclose details of their investments for commercial reasons. Some, such as central banks and foreign reserve managers, have similar policies on maintaining confidentiality.The AOFM asserted that "such investors are likely to withdraw from securities where their holdings are required to be revealed. This would make it more difficult, and more costly, for the Commonwealth to issue securities and for States and Territories to issue guaranteed debt." The AOFM said it was unlikely to be able to form an opinion on the domicile of beneficial owners of securities and noted the act contains no provisions to compel the provision of information by beneficial or notional bond holders.