The central bank’s auction of the two-tenor term deposit facility (TDF) received P336.436 billion worth of tenders on Wednesday, Dec. 6, exceeding the offer of P290 billion.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Francisco G. Dakila Jr. said there was “strong demand observed in the BSP term deposit facility” despite the reduced volume.
On Wednesday, the BSP offered only P290 billion, P10 billion lower than the previous week’s P300 billion.
The BSP allocated P160 billion for the 7-day TDF and P130 billion for the 14-day tenor.
Total tenders of P336.436 billion was “within the BSP’s expected volume range,” according to Dakila.
He added that the respective bid-to-cover ratios for the 7-day and 14-day tenors were at 1.114x and 1.217x, and this was an indication of a strong demand for the term deposits.
Of the total bids received, the BSP accepted P290 billion. The BSP awarded P160 billion for the 7-day TDF, lower than bids of P178.186 billion. It also accepted P130 billion for the 14-day tenor versus tenders of P158.250 billion.
The TDF also attracted higher weighted average interest rates (WAIR) for both the 7-day and 14-day tenors.
The WAIR for the 7-day TDF went up by 0.52 basis point (bp) to 6.6927 percent, while that for the 14-day TDF rose by 0.06 bp to 6.6892 percent.
“The range of yields accepted in the 7-day and 14-day tenors narrowed to 6.6500-6.7200 percent and 6.6550-6.7100 percent, respectively,” said Dakila.
The TDF is one of BSP’s main liquidity management tool. It was first introduced in 2016 as part of the interest rate corridor system.
As of end-October, the BSP absorbed P1.809 trillion of excess liquidity from the financial system.
The BSP mops up excess liquidity to control inflation and for active liquidity management. Basically, it removes money from banks to park these funds in the BSP’s interest-earning monetary operations and to “influence the underlying demand and supply conditions for central bank money.”
Of the P1.809 trillion, the BSP securities facility which is an auction of two tenors conducted every Friday, mopped up 40.6 percent or about P734.8 billion during the period.
Meanwhile, placements in the TDF totaled P458 billion or about 25.3 percent of the total.