Asset Purchase Facility: Gilt Sales – Market Notice 22 September 2022

Market notice

At its meeting ending on 21 September 2022, the MPC voted to reduce the stock of purchased UK government bonds (gilts) held in the Asset Purchase Facility (APF), financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, by £80 billion over the next twelve months, to a total of £758 billion, in line with the strategy set out in the minutes of the August MPC meeting.

As set out in the Market Notice published on 1 September 2022, the Bank will set its gilt sale auction schedule on a quarterly basis. Accordingly, this Market Notice sets out the details and schedule for the Bank’s planned gilt sale operations in Q4 2022, starting from the week commencing 3 October 2022.

Gilt Sales Auctions – Q4 2022

As announced previously, sales of gilts held in the APF will be distributed evenly across short, medium and long maturity sectors. These sectors are defined as: gilts with a residual maturity of between 3-7 years (short), those with a residual maturity of between 7-20 years (medium), and those with a residual maturity of over 20 years (long). 

During Q4 2022, the Bank intends to hold five gilt sale auctions in each of these three sectors, with a planned size of £580mn per auction. The dates for the individual auctions are specified in the table below.

Detailed operational parameters will be as set out previously in the 1 September 2022 Market Notice, including that:

1. Gilt sale auctions will normally begin at 2.15pm and finish at 2.45pm.^{footnote [1]}
2. The Bank will not make available for sale gilts which the UK Debt Management Office (DMO) has announced it will re-open, including via a tender, during the period of two weeks (exactly 336 hours) before and after the re-opening.
3. The Bank will confirm details of the following week’s auctions on its wire services pages each Thursday at 4pm, and re-confirm these at 9am on the morning of each auction.

The Bank will closely monitor the impact of its gilt sales programme on market conditions, and reserves the right to amend its schedule, including the gilts to be sold and the size of its auctions, or any other aspects of its approach at its sole discretion.

Other than as amended by this Market Notice, the consolidated APF gilt sales Market Notice published by the Bank on 1 September 2022 will apply.

The Bank expects to announce the sales schedule for Q1 2023 on 16 December 2022.

Table: APF gilt sale auction calendar – October to December 2022