Been monitoring this thread..
Bureau of the Treasury Website
I personally haven't bought Government Securities (GS) yet, but I will be once the goverment releases it this month or next as what it says on the BTr's website.
I did go to BPI and BDO for inquiries about T-bonds, T-bills and Retail Treasury Bills (RTBs).
From BPI I talked with the manager, good thing he a previous acquaintance, unfortunately he said he personally doesn't know much about bonds and RTBs because eventhough he is working for BPI it is not covered in their branch, he said some things about another branch or office of BPI deals with GS's specifically. If I recall it is BPI Capital who's dealing with these kinds of transactions. I showed genuine interest about it so eventually he said, he will be informing me through email or phone when it is ready and I have to sign some forms and he made some side comments about how difficult it is for these transactions, perhaps because it is not in there work scope.. hmmm..
Feeling somewhat unsatisfied about this I went to BDO and ask the teller. Maybe she was new or it was her first time about such inquiry for she was kind of confuse and ask another teller about it and they eventually asked there manager.
The manager told me that their BDO treasury department is the one handling such transactions and she didn't have the authority to do so with me, so she called a nice lady on the phone had a chit chat for a while and eventually transferred the phone to me.
This nice lady inform me that such transactions are controlled, hmm.. I somewhat recalled an article that I've previously read that the government had some restrictions about who's going to buy this GSs, they don't want it going to the wrong hands. I can't say much about this since don't have much experience about it.
She then asked for my phone number and gave hers too, unfortunately I forgot to take note of here number and totally forgot about it.
I asked here if I could buy bonds, T-bonds to be exact. Then she said that the government hasn't release new bonds yet and they are still waiting and she would be glad to inform me if there is already. I asked her if there is a market for bonds which I could readily buy from she said there is. However if I was to buy now I would be buying from a secondary market which of course is more pricey this is because this bonds had already gained and accumulated interest on them and it is bought on the secondary market.
To my knowledge correct me if I’m wrong, the process goes like this.
Government issues bonds for bidding Bidder’s bid ((Primary Market)Banks like BDO, BPI and others as long as they are accrideted by the government) Banks sell to the public (Secondary Market).
Since the government hasn’t issued bonds yet the ready market is only the secondary market and of couse you will be buying it above par (1par = 100php).
With my ignorance about this she was kind enough to inform me it is much better to wait until the government issues these bonds so I can buy from the bank at a price at par.
Additional information.
If I’d buy T-bills and/or T-bonds from (BDO), initial investment would be 100k, the additional buying would cost at an increment of 1,000. hmmm maybe this goes to say that if I had an existing 100k in bonds at an investment account with them (BDO), I can readily by at 1k only.
Fortunately if you don’t have that much money like I do, we can opt to buy RTBs. For RTBs my friend in BPI said they don’t have this program yet as of now. I think only BDO has this.
For RTBs you can buy it at a minimum of 5k , succeeding investment is also 5k, unlike the T-bills and T-bonds, which you can buy at 1k only.
Hmm.. I think taas na siya kayo nya maboringan namo ani,.
I hope this helps and I hope madatu nata.. hehe
“Dictated, but not read”..