The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) term deposit facility (TDF) attracted bids worth P305.484 billion on Wednesday, Nov. 15, lower than the offer of P330 billion as banks were disbursing funds ahead of the Nov. 16 Monetary Board policy meeting.
“The undersubscription could be attributed to banks’ servicing of loan releases and client withdrawals ahead of the BSP policy meeting on 16 November 2023,” said BSP Deputy Governor Francisco G. Dakila Jr.
“Nevertheless, financial system liquidity remains ample. Looking ahead, the BSP’s monetary operations will continue to be guided by its assessment of prevailing liquidity conditions and market developments,” he added.
This week’s TDF volume of P330 billion was lower than last week’s P400 billion. The 7-day TDF was offered at P200 billion while the 14-day tenor was offered at P130 billion.
“Both tenors were undersubscribed with total tenders amounting to ₱305.484 billion, lower than the BSP’s range of expected volume,” said Dakila. The bid-to-cover ratio for the 7-day was at 0.899x while the 14-day TDF coverage ratio stood at 0.967x.
Meanwhile, the BSP accepted all tenders, bringing the weighted average interest rates (WAIRs) in both tenors higher, said Dakila.
The 7-day WAIR increased 3.3 basis points (bps) to 6.6473 percent while the 14-day average rate rose by 4.7 bps to 6.6699 percent.
Dakila said the range of bids accepted in both tenors were higher than in the previous week “but narrowed slightly to 6.5500- 6.7399 percent in the 7-day TDF and 6.5850-6.7750 percent in the 14-day TDF.”
The BSP’s TDF is an interest rate corridor facility to bring the market rates closer to the BSP key rate. Basically, the TDF absorbs excess money in the financial system to control inflationary pressures.
The BSP’s policy-making arm, the Monetary Board, will meet this week (Thursday) to decide its next policy move. The market consensus is that the BSP will keep the target reverse repurchase rate steady at 6.5 percent with a lower October inflation rate of 4.7 percent and a higher-than-expected gross domestic product or GDP growth rate of 5.9 percent for the third quarter.