Against the background of the high demand for purchasing central bank bills (known by their Hebrew acronym, Makam) in Bank of Israel auctions recently, the bank of Israel (BOI) decided that the central bank bills will be issued twice monthly in the near future, until further notice. This is in comparison to issuance once a month until now.
Central bank bills, (known as MAKAM, their Hebrew acronym) are short term securities issued by the Bank of Israel. Makam serve as one of the Bank’s monetary tools. Makam, which are issued for various terms up to one year, are unindexed and bear no coupon interest. They are sold and traded at a discount to their par value. Makam are issued to the public via auction.
A detailed notice will be published, as was generally done during monthly issues, on the Thursday before the issue date. The notice will include the issue date, details on the series being issued, and the amount being offered in the auction.
This change in frequency of issuance shall go into effect from next week: On Tuesday, November 29, 2022, the BOI will hold a Makam auction in addition to the auction that was carried out in the beginning of November. As part of that, the Bank of Israel will sell NIS 6 billion of the Makam series maturing in February 2023 and NIS 4 billion of the Makam series maturing November 2023.
