Treasury: 5-year RTBs hit ‘record high’ sales during offering’s first week

MANILA, Philippines — The ongoing sale of five-year retail treasury bonds (RTBs) has already exceeded the record P310.8 billion issued at the start of the year as investors from overseas flocked to the online selling channels, National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said.

De Leon on Wednesday night said the RTB volume sold during the first week of offering reached a “record high,” but she declined to say how much was snapped up by small investors as well as swapped for maturing IOUs. “Let it grow first,” de Leon said when asked about figures.

This week, investor briefings were being held virtually for Filipinos abroad, such as those in the Caribbean, Japan, and New York City, De Leon said.

As such, De Leon said the Treasury would not yet cut short the offer period of until Aug. 7. “We need time for overseas Filipinos, and also to get people onboard on Bonds PH,” she explained, referring to the mobile app making available the RTBs maturing in 2025 at a coupon of 2.625 percent.

During the sale of three-year RTBs last January, the Treasury shortened the offer period to only one week upon selling P250 billion in new money on top of switching P60.8 billion in maturing debt paper.

The government’s 24th issuance and the Duterte administration’s seventh offering involved selling RTBs in multiples of P5,000 over-the-counter through banks, online channels, and a mobile app across 25 agents.

No less than Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno, and Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua purchased RTBs using the Bonds PH app powered by UnionBank during last week’s launch.

On top of his initial P5,000 investment bought through the app, Dominguez said: “I actually bought more—P10,000 for each of my six grandkids.”

“The yield of the bonds is better than the current yield on savings accounts, are fixed for five years, and are denominated in pesos, which is very stable. So invest in them, too!” Dominguez said.

/MUF