THE GOVERNMENT’S latest tranche of retail Treasury bonds (RTBs) will only be sold to individual investors starting Friday following strong demand from the market.
“Due to the significant volume of bids received, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) will only accept bids for individual investors starting Aug. 8 until the end of the offer period… as such, all selling agents must limit the submission of their bids for individual investors only,” the Treasury said in a notice posted on its website on Thursday.
The BTr said an individual investor is defined as “a natural person under Philippine law.”
“For this purpose, trust accounts and/or private banking arrangements representing funds of natural persons or a group of natural persons, such as but not limited to employee retirement or trust funds, provident funds, cooperatives, associations and investment management accounts, are considered individual investors…,” it added.
The Treasury will also close its exchange offer for the RTBs on Friday, it said in the same notice, a week earlier than scheduled. Holders of government bonds maturing on Sept. 9, 2025, Feb. 4, 2026, and Feb. 14, 2026 have until 4 p.m. on Friday to swap their holdings for the new retail bonds.
The government raised an initial P210 billion from via its offer of five-year retail Treasury bonds at the rate-setting auction held on Tuesday, with tenders reaching P354.175 billion.
The notes are priced at 6% per annum, payable quarterly.
The public offer period will run until Aug. 15, while settlement is on Aug. 20.
National Treasurer Sharon P. Almanza earlier said the government is aiming to raise P300 billion in fresh funding, excluding the volume generated through the bond exchange offer program.
However, they do not target to surpass the P584.86-billion record achieved in last year’s RTB issuance.
The new RTBs are available in bank branches and digital platforms including BTr’s Online Ordering Facility, the Bonds.PH app, Land Bank of the Philippines, Overseas Filipino Bank and GCash via GBonds.
The government borrows from local and foreign sources to help fund its budget deficit, which is capped at P1.56 trillion or 5.5% of gross domestic product this year. — A.M.C. Sy
