BSP’s P40-B term deposit auction oversubscribed

Banks swarmed the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ term deposit facility auction yesterday as tenders exceeded the offering by almost three times.

The P119.58 billion in bids, however, were limited to the P40 billion in seven-day term deposits, the only remaining tenor.

The BSP awarded the facility at a yield of 2.75-2.989 percent.

In mid-December, the BSP cut its TDF offering to just P40 billion of the shorter tenor.

On Jan. 31, the BSP will again offer a similar volume for the same tenor of term deposits.

The BSP last month stopped the auction of the 28-day facility on expectations of higher demand from bank customers amid the Christmas holidays.

The BSP earlier slashed to P80 billion—P40 billion in seven-day and P40 billion in 28-day—the total TDF offering during the first two weeks of December from P130 billion in November.

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.