Sale and Issue of Marketable Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds: Six-Decimal Pricing, Negative-Yield Bidding, Zero-Filling, and Noncompetitive Bidding and Award Limit Increase

The Department of the Treasury ("Treasury," "We," or "Us") is issuing in final form an amendment to its regulations (Uniform Offering Circular for the Sale and Issue of Marketable Book-Entry Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds). This amendment implements four policy changes and makes conforming changes to the formulas. First, this amendment changes the pricing convention for all marketable Treasury securities auctions from three decimal places to six decimal places. Second, this amendment allows for negative-yield bidding in Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) auctions to accommodate circumstances in which the desired real yield is a negative number. Third, this amendment provides for "zero-filling" of competitive auction bids that are not expressed out to the required three decimals by modifying the bids to a three-decimal rate or yield that is mathematically equivalent to the rate or yield submitted. Finally, this amendment raises the noncompetitive bidding and award limit for all Treasury bill auctions from $1 million to $5 million, which is the current noncompetitive limit for all Treasury note and bond auctions.