© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A sign marks the U.S Treasury Department in Washington, U.S., August 6, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday said it was calling for Large Position Reports from entities holding more than $10.2 billion worth of a six-month Treasury bill maturing on June 8, around the department’s deadline for a potential default had Congress failed to raise the debt ceiling.
The Treasury said it was asking entities meeting this threshold to report their positions as of April 28 and May 5, as part of a routine request under the Government Securities Act Amendments of 1993. The bill’s CUSIP number is 912796ZP7.
The Treasury had said in its May quarterly refunding that it would call for Large Position Reports “sometime over the next three months.”
As Republicans in Congress and the Biden administration were locked in a bitter standoff over raising the then-$31.4 trillion debt ceiling, Treasury bills maturing in early June were experiencing volatility and steep yield increases due to uncertainty over a possible default.
A Treasury official said reports for the bill maturing on June 8 were chosen to gain some insight into Treasury market dynamics surrounding the debt ceiling uncertainty.
“Large positions, in and of themselves, are not inherently harmful to the Treasury market,” the Treasury said in a statement. “Treasury in conducting a call for LPRs does not presume there is manipulative or illegal intent on the part of entities that control large positions in a particular Treasury security.”
