Banks unwound passes worth $4.7 billion on the last day of May. Private banks reduced their stock by $3 billion and public banks by $1.7 billion.
In May, the migration of flows that were within the passive repos of the Central Bank (BCRA) to Treasury debt continued. This was evident after the last tender of the month in which paid liabilities fell to almost 20-year lows.
“The banks dismantled passes for $4.7 billion on May 31 (Treasury tender). While private banks reduced their stock by $3 billion and public banks by $1.7 billion. The stock amounts to $18.5 billion“, he expressed from his account on X, Salvador VitelliHead of Research at Romano Group.
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According to this consultancy, remunerated liabilities reached minimum levels not seen since May 2005, measured in real terms. “The other side of this is the migration of debt from the BCRA to the Treasurythe latter increasing its stock of debt by an amount similar to the disarmament of repos, paying a little more rate even in this tender,” the expert completed.
Migration to Treasury debt
In the last tender, the ministry led by Luis Caputo placed $3.5 billion of debt in pesos and continued with its strategy of migrating Central Bank liabilities to Treasury debt, a handrail that is supported by the offer from the Ministry of Finance to banks of higher interest rates than those paid to them by the BCRA.
On that occasion, it did so through three short-term fixed rate bills (LECAP), maturing on June 14, July 12 and August 16. In the tender, Finance received offers for $16.7 billionbut awarded 21% of the total since it had preset a ceiling of $3.5 billion.
In the call for the auction itself, the secretary Pablo Quirno had defined a minimum rate for the shortest LECAP of 4.2% monthly effective (TEM). That is, a return higher than that received by banks for BCRA repos and also higher than that which arose from the price of that same bill in the secondary market. This is the incentive that was given to financial entities to lend themselves to the debt handrail with the Central.
The other two bills did not have a minimum rate. Finally, they were awarded at a TEM of 3.57% for the one that expires in July and 3.59% for the one that expires in August. “It represents a reduction in rates compared to the previous tender,” said the Ministry of Finance.
Source: Ambito
