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Agence France Trésor announces today that the BTAN 1% 25 July 2017 has reached maturity. This was the last BTAN (fixed-rate Treasury note with interest paid annually). The State has redeemed this bond series for a nominal amount of €19.3 billion.
There are no more BTANs trading on the secondary market. The French government debt is now made up of just two types of securities:
- BTFs, fixed-rate Treasury bills with prepaid interest, with maturity of 12 months or less;
- OATs, medium- and long-term Treasury bonds, with maturity of 2-50 years, including the OATi and OAT€i indexed bonds, which are indexed to French and European inflation rates, respectively.
This BTAN redemption marks the end of an era. BTANs were originally medium-term Treasury bonds, with maturity of 2-5 years.
Brief history of the BTAN:
The reform of the French money market in late 1985 gave rise to a single capital market for securities of all maturities. The central point of this market renovation was a reform of Treasury bonds reserved for financial institutions. Of the wide variety of different kinds of bonds that existed at that time, only marketable Treasury securities (BTFs and BTANs) would remain, thus becoming the modern instruments for managing government debt. The first BTAN was issued via auction on 11 February 1986. This two-year BTAN paid a 9% nominal coupon.
The BTAN was a key component of modern government debt financing. Issued successively in francs, ECU and euro, on a nominal or inflation-linked basis, fungible, standardised, liquid and accessible for all investors – BTANs have made a major contribution to the French government financing over the past 30 years.
For the sake of simplification, as of 1 January 2013, new benchmark medium-term securities (2-year and 5-year maturities) have been issued as OATs, just like long-term securities with maturities of 7 years or more.
Between 1986 and 2013, nearly €1,188 billion in debt securities have been issued as BTANs.
As at 31 December 2016, BTAN outstandings totalled €35.5 billion for two series with maturity on 25 February and 25 July 2017.
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