Bureaucracy kills Philippine local bond liquidity

With much fanfare last month, the country’s Bureau of Treasury (BTr) listed so-called Small-denominated Treasury (SDT) bonds on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) totaling Ps30 billion ($626 million). The SDTs come in denominations of only Ps5000 ($104), with a 13.625% coupon that is intended as a means of siphoning off excess cash from small investors.