Source: MTS
MTS Associated Markets is pleased to announce that it has launched a primary auction facility for Danish Treasury Bills on MTS Denmark, in order to enable Danmarks Nationalbank's Government Debt Management department, to conduct its Danish T-bill auction electronically.
This development represents an expansion of MTS Group's activities in the primary market, where a number of issuers have conducted primary auction operations on selected MTS markets via the tap/buy-back functionality.
The new MTS primary auction market is expected to be rolled out to other government issuers in due course.
To coincide with the launch, Danish T-Bills will also be available on the system for secondary trading, thus extending the liquidity and transparency already inherent in Danish government bonds to short-term Danish instruments. Initially, the following four Treasury Bill issues will be eligible for trading on MTS Denmark: DKT 01/11/05, DKT 01/02/06, DKT 01/05/06 and DKT 01/08/06.
Ove Sten Jensen, Head of Government debt Management at Danmarks Nationalbank said: "We are delighted by news of the introduction of the primary auction facility on MTS Denmark because this will enable us and the 12 T-bills Primary Dealers, to conduct our Treasury Bill auctions in a more efficient and transparent manner. Primary Dealers will also benefit through the reduced scope for errors and with significantly faster auction results. In addition, the listing of T-Bills on the secondary market will complement the new primary auction facility and should attract the levels of liquidity that have enhanced Danish government bond trading."
The MTS Primary Auction is the first system to run on the new technology called TradeImpact. The other existing markets operated by MTS will migrate to the new technology during the course of the coming months.
Volumes on MTS Denmark have grown exponentially since the November 2003 launch, with average daily volumes currently running at €350 million (DKK 2.725 million).