Treasury Bills are short-term, marketable zero-coupon financial instruments issued with maturities of less than one year. Treasury bills are issued at a discount and are redeemed at face value. These instruments constitute a useful cash management tool primarily to cover temporary shortfalls in government’s weekly cash flows and, secondly, to maintain liquidity in the domestic Treasury bill market.
Mechanism for Issuance
A monthly issuance calendar with details of the tenors, auction date and settlement date of the individual weekly issues of Treasury bills is announced to the Malta Stock Exchange and published in the Government Gazette in advance on a monthly basis.
Normally, Treasury Bills are issued every week through a competitive bidding process (auction). The Treasury Bills auction is typically held every Tuesday of the week and the settlement date is fixed for the following Thursday (T+2 settlement cycle). When the auction date or the settlement date or any day in between the auction date and the settlement date falls on a non-business day, the auction takes place on the first business day of the same week. The Treasury focuses the issuance on 91-day tenor, which constitutes the money market benchmark, although issues may also include a mix of 28 day, 182 day, 273 day and 364 day Treasury bills.
The closing time for both the Treasury bill auction and settlement is fixed at 10.00 am (CET). Until now, the auction is conducted manually and the allotment of bills is determined by multiple price Dutch auction method. The price payable by each successful bidder is the price tendered in the auction.
Participation in Treasury bill auction in the primary market is open to members of the public and institutional investors irrespective of the residency of the bidder.
Bids can be submitted directly at Treasury by fax (+00356 2596-7210) or via e-mail at the e-mail addresses indicated on the prescribed application forms. The current application forms can be downloaded by
clicking here
Auction results are announced and published by the Treasury as soon as possible after the closing time for bidding. Auction results can be viewed by
clicking here.
Treasury Bills Results
T-Bills: General Prospectus
Click here for a detailed T-Bills General Prospectus that governs T-Bills issued as from 1st September 2017
Click here for a detailed T-Bills General Prospectus that governs T-Bills issued as from 1st April 2015