Economy

Government to Sell Retail Bonds Next Week

By Chino S. Leyco, Manila Bulletin

The national government will sell retail bonds targeted at local small investors next week, the Bureau of the Treasury announced Wednesday, February 20.

In a notice posted on its website, the bureau said that the government will initially sell PhP30 billion of five-year fixed rate retail treasury bond at a price setting auction on February 26, 2019, which is also the start of its offer period that will end on March 8, 2019.

According to National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon, the issuance of the bonds, which is intended for small investors since the minimum placement is PhP5,000, aims to replenish the PhP70 billion worth of debt papers that had matured last February 19.

This latest retail bonds sale, meanwhile, is the first to be issued through an online facility where investors can also order and purchase the notes through the Internet.

“The RTB Online Facility’s primary objective is to encourage a wider participation among individual investors,” the Treasury said.

The issuance of retail bonds has been part of the government’s savings mobilization program designed to make government securities available to retail investors and at the same time create savings consciousness among Filipinos.

The government has been tapping funds from individuals since 2001 and had raised more than PhP1 trillion from the sale of the bonds to date.

The government last issued RTBs in June last year, when it managed to raise PhP121.7 billion worth of three-year papers.

Meanwhile, the treasury also said that the scheduled auctions next week of short-term and long-dated IOUs are cancelled.

“In view of the upcoming offering of retail treasury bonds tranche 22 on February 26, 2019, the Treasury Bills and three-year Treasury Bond auction scheduled on February 26 and 27, 2019, respectively are hereby cancelled,” de Leon said in notice uploaded in the treasury website.

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