Government securities are debt instruments that are issued by central banks with the aim of raising funds to finance government deficits. They can also be issued as a result of monetary policy where they are used to drain liquid. Although government usually prefer to use longer maturity to finance deficits while central banks usually like short-term maturity securities in monetary policy.
Types of government securities
There are four main types of securities that government issues
4. Treasury inflation protected securities (Tips)
These securities given the fact that they are issued by the government they are considered to be quite safe. However you should be aware that not all government securities are safe. Investors should remember examples such as Argentina defaulting on its bonds or Dubai trying to dodge out of its obligations by asserting that legally the bonds are not issued by the government but by a separate entity control by the government.
These government securities are also highly liquid. In fact government securities are the most traded of all securities. This is because by law banks, insurers and other financial institutions are required to hold a certain percentage of safe assets on their balance sheets. Hence a lot of these institutions hold government securities to reduce risk in their portfolio.
The increased liquidity comes from the fact that these institutions needs to have access to their funds at short notice. However when they do not need their money they need to invest it in a safe asset that they can sell easily. Hence this add to the increased liquidity of the government securities.
These securities can be obtained from two ways. Either over the counter at central banks and with financial institutions or though a system of auction at which financial institutions bid for them. we have already seen this system in the post on treasury bills.
No comments:
Post a Comment