Deputy Treasurer Eduardo Mendiola said that after the agency accepted bids of about P49.62 billion during the price setting on Tuesday, the BTr received P45 billion more of orders from the banks.

“We have gotten P45 billion worth of orders yesterday [Tuesday] after the auction so that’s about P95 billion already,” Mendiola said.

During the previous offering of RTBs in October last year, the government sold about P110 billion.

As a result of the offering, the government is cancelling the auction of the P9 billion, 10-year Treasury bonds next week.

Mendiola said the Treasury has yet to place a cap on the amount of RTBs that may be sold to the public by the accredited banks, but he may impose the cap by today.

The government will sell the RTBs, with tenors of 15 years and 20 years, from February 21 to 29.

State-owned financial institutions such as the Government Service Insurance System, Social Security System, Philippine Health Insurance Corp., Home Development Mutual Fund and Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. can only buy the RTBs via over the counter on March 1.

During the auction on Tuesday, the 15-year debt paper fetched a coupon rate of 5.375 percent while the 20-year securities received a rate of 5.875 percent.

“While these are long-tenor securities, there is a very healthy secondary market so investors don’t have to hold on to the RTBs for the entire 15 and 20 years.  There are ready buyers to buy RTBs if one wants to sell,” Mendiola said.

Holders of RTBs would get returns on their investments on a quarterly basis.