Central Bank to introduce repo transactions on electronic platform

Sept 19, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Central Bank is considering introducing the repurchase and reverse repurchase transactions to the Bloomberg electronic bond trading platform. All primary dealers had joined this platform for government securities secondary market transactions starting from August, while commercial banks joined the platform from 15th September 2016. “All stakeholders have now begun to yield the benefits arising from the transparency, price discovery and liquidity created through this trading platform in the market,” the central bank said in a statement. “The Central Bank is grateful to all those stakeholders who supported this significant milestone in further development of government securities market in Sri Lanka.” All primary dealers and banks undertake trades among them in the platform and report all over-the-counter outright deals with investors of 50 million rupees and above within 30 minutes. The Central Bank currently releases basic trade information on yields and volumes by each security traded to its website next day. In due course, the Central Bank will release such market information twice a day, at noon and close of the day, the Central Bank said in statement. During 32 market days from 01.08.2016 to 15.09.2016, 1,816 outright transactions amounting to 218.7 billion rupees took place in trade of the majority of securities in issue, the bank said.