Government eyes P10 billion from maiden offer of tokenized T-bonds

MANILA, Philippines — The government intends to borrow at least P10 billion from the local debt market via the maiden issuance of the peso-denominated tokenized Treasury bonds (TTBs).

In a notice of offering to qualified institutional buyers yesterday, the Bureau of the Treasury said it would launch on Monday the country’s first offering of peso-denominated TTB.

The TTBs are one-year fixed-rate government securities that pay semi-annual coupons. The issuance aims to raise at least P10 billion.

The Treasury said issuance of TTBs aims to provide the proof of concept for the wider use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the government bond market.

“This proof of concept will serve as the starting point of the government’s broader agenda of democratizing investment through digital technology, significantly reducing settlement risk and friction costs, ultimately leading to a financially inclusive local bond market,” the Treasury said.

This is also part of the government’s securities digitalization roadmap.

According to the Treasury, investors can invest in minimum denominations of P10 million, and in increments of P1 million, similar to conventional government securities offers.

The bonds will be issued in the form of digital tokens, which will be maintained in the Treasury’s DLT Registry.

The Treasury said it would implement a dual registry structure, with the DLT Registry running parallel with the National Registry of Scripless Securities, with the latter serving as the primary registry.

The book building exercise for the TTBs will commence on Monday at 9 am.By then, interested institutional buyers must also submit their bids no later than 12:30 pm via the submission of firm commitment letters to issue managers Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines.

Notice of awards will be provided not later than 2 pm of the same day.