The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) is offering treasury bills worth €700m on behalf of the Ministry of Finance on Monday. This marks the second time this year that treasury bills are issued in a European currency. According to the CBE, these bills are being offered to pay old bills that were offered on 18 November 2014 at the value of €734.3m, which are due on 17 November 2015. The CBE explained that the new bills are presented for a year since they will be due on 15 November 2016. The CBE offered treasury bills in euros on 28 August 2012 and according to their latest figures, the total outstanding balance of those bills until the end of last June reached the equivalent of only about EGP 11.346bn. The CBE allows subscription to the bills in euros for local banks and foreign institutions with a minimum subscription of €100,000 and its multiples. Banks subscribe to bills in euros in the same manner as local currency, where each bank submits its bid to CBE, indicating the amount with which it will subscribe in bills and the interest rate demanded. These bids are collected at the CBE for consideration and acceptance of the suitable ones. Banks operating in the local market rely on these bills to invest their liquidity in euros safely with the government, with an appropriate yield, in light of the lack of other investments for such liquidity. Exceptions include rare syndicated loans, or investment in global capital markets, with a low yield and many risks. The first return offered by the Ministry of Finance on the bills in euros was in 2012, which reached 3.25%, while the current average revenue is about 1.9%.
