7- and 28-day term deposits undersubscribed

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (File photo / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA — Both the seven- and 28-day term deposits auctioned off by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Wednesday were undersubscribed as rates for the shorter tenor inched up.

For the P40-billion offering for the seven-day term deposit facility, tenders reached only P35.238 billion, which the BSP all accepted.

The yield for the one-week TDF rose to 3.1-3.39 percent from 3.05-3.3 percent last week.

The bids for P140 billion in the 28-day facility offered, meanwhile, amounted to just P89.142 billion.

The accepted yield for the one-month term deposits remained within the range of 3.4-3.5 percent.

Sought for comment, BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. told reporters: “We need to carefully analyze today’s TDF auction results as well as the trend of recent results, whether the results are readily explained by temporary and self-correcting reasons or we should already consider refinements to some of our policy settings.”

Next week, the BSP will again offer a total of P180 billion in TDF—P40 billion in seven-day and P140-billion in 28-day.

Launched in June last year, the weekly TDF auctions form part of the BSP’s implementation of the interest rate corridor aimed at bringing market rates closer to the policy rate of 3 percent by mopping up
excess liquidity.  SFM