Mnuchin: Demand is limited for ultra-long US Treasury bonds

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US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Monday that he didn't see a lot of demand in the US markets for ultra-long Treasury bonds.

"We've done a bunch of research and reached out and at least as of now, we don't see a lot of demand for it," Mnuchin said in an interview with Bloomberg News, adding he initially thought the concept of ultra-long bonds made sense for the US Treasury to explore.

"If we could issue ultra-long bonds at the same yield as 30-year bonds, it makes a lot of sense for us to extend the duration," he said. However, if it turns out there's a big premium to issue ultra-long bonds, "there's no reason for us to do that."

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The US Treasury said in May that the department was studying the possibility of issuing ultra-long bonds, with tenors greater than 30 years. Currently, the Treasury only issues 10-year and 30-year long-term bonds.

In a letter to Mnuchin in that month, the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), a government-appointed panel of external experts, had concluded that "there is little evidence of strong or sustainable demand" for ultra-long bonds in the US markets.

The advisory committee also noted that foreign demand for ultra-long bonds was likely to be low, as foreign holdings of US Treasuries are predominantly shorter maturity.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency