The Bureau of Public Debt plans to tighten the times between the end of U.S. Treasury auctions and the release of the results, according to Steve Meyerhardt, BPD spokesman.
Treasury auction results are initially released to the terminals linked to the BPD, which primary dealers have. The results are also released to Bloomberg and Dow Jones, as well as the Department of the Treasury's press room.
The other bidders who don't have access to those resources receive the auction results through a press release and addendum sent to an e-mail mailing list. As recently as 2000, the press release took as long as 45 minutes to an hour to be sent to the mailing list. Today, the lag time stands at 10 to 15 minutes. The bureau is trying to get that time down to the same two minutes as the initial Treasury results release within the next few months.
"The quicker we get the information out to the marketplace, the less uncertainty there is about pricing," said Meyerhardt.
The Treasury has also been gradually trying to make its auctions more transparent. Several years ago, it took them 45 minutes to an hour to release the initial results of Treasury auctions. Today, the initial results of Treasury auctions are released two minutes after the close of bidding. The Treasury implemented its two-minute auction rule in Aug. 2003.
"The faster the release time, the less risk the bidder undertakes, which we believe could result in a higher price for Treasuries," said Tim Bitsberger, acting assistant secretary for financial markets at the Department of the Treasury.
