Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Friday the successful first onshore issuance of retail dollar bonds will help deepen the domestic capital markets and broaden financial inclusion.
The RDB issuance and other earlier retail bond offerings, made possible through the use of digital platforms, also help improve financial literacy among Filipinos, Dominguez said in a statement.
Retail bond offerings such as the RDBs offer small investors not only the opportunity to avail of secure investments, but also to support the financing needs of the country, especially at this time of the pandemic, Dominguez said.
“This is far more worthy than gaining interest in their savings that they can otherwise earn from other investment sources. It is because of bond offerings such as this one that we have been able to raise funds for our economic investments and COVID-19 response measures,” he said during the settlement and listing of the RDBs in the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. at the Bureau of the Treasury’s main office at the Ayuntamiento de Manila.
Dominguez said the RDB listing marked “a critical milestone” and “a moment of pride” for the country, as “the issuance supports the development of our capital markets and helps fulfill President Duterte’s goal of financial inclusion among Filipinos.”
He said the skillful execution of the government’s financing program by the BTr under National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon allowed small investors to buy RDBs for a minimum of $300 or about P15,000, which they could increase by minimum increments of $100 or P5,000.
“We have now successfully opened another channel to encourage more Filipinos to place their savings in secure investment opportunities. Making investments in government securities easy and convenient contributes to our efforts to expand financial literacy among Filipinos. We will continuously introduce more innovative ways in future issuances to ensure that we create a more inclusive government securities market,” Dominguez said.
Dominguez cited the ease and convenience of investing in RDBs through online investment platforms such as the Bonds.PH mobile application, the mobile applications of the Overseas Filipino Bank and the Land Bank of the Philippines and the BTr’s Online Ordering Facility.
Dominguez noted the “very robust response” to the RDB issuance as shown by the $1.59 billion raised by the Treasury from the sale, or almost four times the initial target of $400 million.
The BTr’s web- and mobile app-based investment channels yielded 520 transactions, which raised a total of $810,000. The amount translates into an average placement of around $1,500 per online transaction.