NTMA to auction €750m in short-term treasury bills

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) is set to raise €750 million in an auction of short-term treasury bills later this week.

The sale, which will take place on March 18th, will offer up to €750 million in treasury bills with a maturity date of August 23rd 2021.

The auction is confined to recognised primary dealers and eligible counterparties.

The NTMA expects to raise up to €20 billion in the bond markets this year to cover a budget gap caused by the Government’s response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and potential fallout from Brexit. It raised about a large chunk of this – €5.5 billion – in a 10-year bond sale in January, with a €750 million sale of treasury bills in February and raised a further €1.5 billion last week in its first bond auction without Davy. The NTMA withdrew the stockbroker’s mandate to act as a primary dealer of Government bonds earlier this month, due to a bond-trading scandal dating back to 2014.