Treasury: Sale of 5-year RTB breaches P250B in less than 1 week

The Bureau of the Treasury already sold over P250 billion in five-year retail treasury bonds (RTBs) less than a week into its offering, National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said on Tuesday (July 21).

De Leon said that out of the record-high P310.8 billion in three-year RTBs issued in February, P250 billion was “new money” or generated from new investors, while the rest were raised from a swap of maturing IOUs.

From the ongoing RTB sale, the Treasury already “exceeded the new money” of the previous issuance, De Leon said.

But De Leon did not give figures on how much was actually snapped by small investors as of Tuesday, on top of the P192.7 billion auctioned off during last Thursday’s (July 16) launch.

In a statement at the weekend, the Department of Finance (DOF) said the 23rd RTB issuance earlier raised P60 billion from its switch offer.

Across the four bonds eligible for swap during the government’s 24th RTB sale, a total of P321 billion in debt paper was outstanding, the DOF had said.

This was the Duterte administration’s seventh RTB offering, aimed at borrowing money for budgetary support while providing a more secure investment in government securities for retail buyers.

The RTBs maturing in 2025 were being sold in multiples of P5,000 at a coupon of 2.625 percent until Aug. 7 over-the-counter through banks as well as online channels and a mobile app across 25 selling agents.

TSB