Sale of 3-year retail T-bills starts Feb. 9

The Bureau of the Treasury will sell at least P30 billion in retail treasury bonds (RTBs) to small investors on top of swapping some maturing debt paper starting Feb. 9.

The notice of offering posted on the Treasury’s website late on Friday said the offer period for the Philippine government’s 25th overall and the Duterte administration’s eighth RTB issuance since 2016 would be until March 4, with settlement on March 9.

The RTBs maturing in 2024 will be sold in multiples of P5,000.

Besides selling to new investors, the Treasury will also exchange fresh RTBs for earlier-issued three-year RTBs maturing in June; 10 year-RTBs maturing in October, and three other IOUs maturing in March, April and November.

Since the Treasury will hold the rate-setting auction for RTBs on Feb. 9, it canceled its scheduled sale of three-year bonds on Feb. 16.

Just like the previous issues, these RTBs will be made available online via the Treasury website as well as the BONDS.PH and Overseas Filipino Bank (OFBank) apps for Filipinos working or living abroad.

Despite a pandemic-induced recession last year, the Treasury raised a record P516.3 billion from five-year RTBs called “progreso bonds” at a coupon rate of 2.625 percent in August last year.

It also issued P310.8 billion in three-year RTBs at a higher 4.375-percent coupon rate in February 2020.

While enjoining individuals and other retail investors to grow their money by investing in government securities, the proceeds raised from RTB issuances will also be injected into the budget.

For 2021, the government has programmed to borrow P2.58 trillion from the local market through the sale of treasury bills and bonds, accounting for the bulk or 85 percent of the total gross borrowings of P3.03 trillion by year’s end. —Ben O. de Vera INQ