On Monday, November 10, the European Central Bank announced its weekly Main Refinancing Operation (MRO). This attracted bids for €334.41 billion from euro area eligible counterparties, which amount was totally allotted, as pre-announced, at a fixed rate equivalent to the new main refinancing rate of 3.25 per cent.
Also on November 10, the Eurosystem and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) conducted a EUR/CHF foreign exchange swap, with a seven-day maturity, to provide Swiss franc liquidity against the euro. This operation attracted bids for €10.59 billion, which amount was also fully allotted at a fixed price of -6.97 swap points.
On Tuesday, November 11, the ECB announced two supplementary Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (LTRO), with a maturity of 91 days and 182 days, respectively. In the 91-day LTRO, the ECB received bids for € 66.81 billion, which amount was fully allotted. In the 182-day LTRO, the ECB received bids for € 41.56 billion, which amount was again fully allotted. Both LTROs were conducted at a fixed rate equivalent to the ECB's main refinancing rate of 3.25 per cent.
On the same day, being the end of the reserve deposit maintenance period, the ECB also conducted an overnight liquidity-absorbing fine-tuning operation. This was carried out at a variable rate with a maximum rate of 3.75 per cent. Counterparties were able to submit a maximum of two bids each. This operation received bids for €149.66 billion, with the ECB accepting €79.94 billion, or 53.4 per cent of the total amount bid for. The marginal rate on this operation was set at 3.60 per cent.
On Wednesday, November 12, the ECB, in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve, conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending. This attracted bids for $60.57 billion, which amount was fully allotted at a fixed rate of 1.43 per cent. In parallel with this operation, the Eurosystem also offered seven-day dollar liquidity through a EUR/USD foreign exchange swap operation which attracted bids for $1.01 billion, which amount was fully allotted at a fixed price of -3.22 swap points.
In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills maturing on February 13, 2009. Bids for €23.37 million were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €6.60 million. Since €11.24 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €4.65 million to €368.34 million.
The yield resulting from the auction was 3.958 per cent, 31.7 basis points lower than that on bills with a similar tenor issued on November 7. The latest yield represented a bid price of 99.0094 per 100 nominal.
Today the Treasury will invite tenders for 182-day bills maturing on May 22, 2009.
Treasury bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange amounted to €2.44 million during the week, with all trades being conducted by the Central Bank of Malta in its role as market maker. Off-Exchange transactions amounted to €400,000.