BTr prepares to sell Retail Treasury Bonds

The Bureau of the Treasury is seeking proposals from banks as it is now finalizing its plan to again sell Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs), Finance Undersecretary and National Treasurer Roberto Tan told reporters yesterday.

“We’ve asked them to provide us proposals which would include the timing of the issuance. We want to know what they think would be the appropriate time to issue Retail Treasury Bonds,” Tan said.

The proposal will also include the appropriate tenors and some indicators of the volume, he added.

Tan said he expects to receive some proposals in the latter part of the month. This, he said, would help them determine the proper time for the issuance of the retail bonds.

The Treasury plans to issue the retail bonds in the latter part of the year but Tan said this would be more to provide an opportunity for investors and not so much to raise funds.

He also said that the Treasury has yet to determine how much RTBs it would issue although he noted that the amount may be smaller than the P33 billion in RTBs which recently matured.

The issuance of RTBs is 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.

With RTBs, investors can buy the debt paper for a minimum amount of P5,000.

Last year, the government raised a total of P77 billion from the sale of its three-year and five-year RTBs, marking the largest fund-raising activity for the government in recent years.

Officials said last year’s RTB offer was the largest. In 2003, the government was able to raise P74 billion.