MNI BRIEF: No T-Bills on BOC Books For First Time Since 1980
The Bank of Canada holds no Treasury bills as balance-sheet assets for the first time since at least 1980, a shift from a stockpile of CAD140 billion acquired as the Covid pandemic squeezed funding markets.
Figures on the Bank's website show zero holdings for the last three weeks, down from CAD350 million just before that. The Bank's bill holdings before the pandemic were about CAD25 billion and surged as the government raised cash for record health and welfare spending. The latest federal budget on April 7 laid out a plan to boost t-bill auctions in response to strong investor demand.
The Bank deployed QE for the first time ever during the pandemic and recently said it would allow maturing federal bonds to roll off the books. One of the central bank's roles is also to run government debt auctions.