Beginning Nov. 5, people who wish to purchase government securities at Federal Reserve Banks in the West will have only 30 minutes to submit their bids at the regular Monday morning auctions.
The U.S. Treasury has announced it is moving up the deadline for the submission of non-competitive tenders for bills, notes and bonds from the current 10 a.m. to 9 a.m. Pacific time. The deadline for submissions of competitive tenders will remain at 10 a.m."The non-competitive submission deadline is being changed to permit auction results to be released to the financial markets more quickly," said Doug Knudsen, assistant vice president of securities services at the San Francisco Fed. "Earlier release of auction results is expected to facilitate secondary market trading of Treasury securities and reduce the Treasury's financing costs."
Knudsen said that securities windows at Federal Reserve offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Salt Lake City and Seattle will open at the same time (8:30 a.m.) every auction day to accept the non-competitive tenders. However, non-competitive bids will be accepted only up to 9:00 a.m. for all marketable securities. This deadline also applies to financial institutions submitting non-competitive bids.
"This does place the non-competitive bidder in somewhat of a time bind," said Knudsen, "especially those individuals who usually withdraw funds from their bank accounts on Monday morning to complete their tender offer. With banks usually opening for business at 9 a.m., individuals must now obtain the required funds the previous Friday or Saturday."
The time change will become effective with the 13- and 26-week Treasury bill auctions tentatively scheduled for Nov. 5 and continue every auction day. On non-auction days, the securities services windows at the Reserve Bank will open as usual at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time.