Treasury bonds shortfall

Something appears to be amiss in Malta's primary market for bonds.

I don't ever recollect a government bond issue that wasn't oversubscribed. For that matter even the spate of corporate bonds over the last decade or so has had the same treatment.

Experts have attributed a number of plausible reasons for last week's seeming change of heart by the public towards the Treasury bonds issue. That is, except for one, rather imperceptible, misconception in the mind of several "small" investors: their perception that the term "subordinated", so much highlighted in corporate bond issues, is akin to "secured", even "guaranteed". Oft have been the instances when I needed to emphasise to advice-seekers that there is absolutely no preferential treatment, particularly security-wise. Unlike bank lendings.

Investment education appears to have been wanting, with consequential narrowing of the demarcation lines between government and corporate bonds' yields.