|
BANKS
and financial institutions are likely to outbid each
other this Friday to get as much of at least P8 billion
worth of retail Treasury bonds (RTBs) the government
will start selling the same day.
The
government sold P77.6 billion of this type of IOU last
year.
At stake
are three- and five-year RTBs. For the banks, this means
offering rates better than the 10.375 percent and the
10.250 percent that the three- and five-year IOUs when
these were offered earlier.
The
objective is for the banks to buy as much RTBs as they
can to ensure their money is invested wisely and for the
government to have a pool of funds.
National
Treasurer Roberto Tan said the Bureau of Treasury could
raise the amount of RTBs depending on the rate the banks
will be offering on Friday.
Tan told
reporters the market is ripe for such a sale considering
that P33 billion worth of RTBs matured and were redeemed
in June.
This
means the banks are now looking for investment outlets
for that much money lying around and contributing
nothing to the industry’s bottom line, the former
finance undersecretary explained. “Yes, they are
hungry,” Tan told reporters.
He also
expressed optimism the banks will continue to offer the
government very competitive rates as they did last year,
when rates were as low as 8.75 percent for the
three-year RTBs and 8.887 percent for the five-year
variety. |
