BSP, Treasury sign deal for issuance of central bank securities

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) signed on Wednesday an agreement to make way for the issuance of central bank’s securities.

The memorandum of agreement covers the linkage of the BSP’s Monetary Operations System (MOS) and the BTr’s National Registry of Scripless Securities (NRoSS), the central bank said in a statement.

The accord was signed by BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno and Treasurer of the Philippines Rosalia de Leon.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III was also present during the signing.

“The connectivity of the BSP’s MOS to the BTr’s NRoSS is an integral part of the process for the issuance of BSP Securities,” the central bank said.

The MOS is a web-based electronic platform that enables counterparties to participate in the BSP’s peso liquidity facilities.

The NRoSS, meanwhile, is an electronic registry system for government securities and facilitates the settlement and recording of transfers of government securities through an established interface with the trading platform for secondary market trades and the BSP’s Philippine Payment and Settlement System (PhilPaSS).

“The MOS-NRoSS linkage will facilitate the seamless process of the auction of BSP-issued securities and the registry and recording of these securities to enable primary market issuance and secondary market trading,” according to the BSP.

“The issuance of the BSP Securities is an additional instrument in the implementation of monetary policy under the Interest Rate Corridor (IRC) framework,” it added.bang

The central bank noted that the use of BSP Securities for liquidity management likewise supports its initiative to shift to more market-based monetary operations and allows it to conduct its monetary operations in line with international central banking practice.

“The initial issuance of the BSP Securities is set within the third quarter of 2020, once all the requirements to support the issuance are in place,” it said. — Ted Cordero/RSJ, GMA News