Are you interested to invest in Retail Treasury Bonds (RTB) offered by the Philippine government, but you don’t have time to visit a bank to inquire? Or perhaps you’re an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) looking to purchase RTB but cannot be physically present in the Philippines?
You probably don’t know it, but it’s possible right now to buy Retail Treasury Bonds wherever you are in the world — thanks to the online facility of the Philippine Bureau of Treasury (BTr).
All you need is as little as P5,000 deposited in your Land Bank or DBP bank account and you can already be an RTB investor of the Philippine government!
We’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how to invest online in Philippine RTB but first, let’s have a refresher course on Retail Treasury Bonds.
What are Retail Treasury Bonds?
Retail Treasury Bonds or RTB are loans of the Philippine government from creditors willing to provide money that will be used to finance spending of the Philippine government, such as infrastructure projects (example: “Build-Build-Build” program of the Duterte administration), social service programs, or interest payments on existing debt.
Simply speaking, RTB is a debt instrument, which makes the Philippines a borrower and the investor (who will lend money) the creditor. For the amount borrowed, the investor is regularly paid coupon interest by the Philippine government and, at the end of the loan period, the entire principal plus remaining unpaid interest, is returned.
Why are these Treasury Bonds called Retail? In the world of finance, “retail” means individual or small customers — in contrast with the other customer segment: the large corporate or institutional investors. The Philippine RTB are specifically called “retail” because one RTB simply costs P5,000 — yes, just five thousand pesos! — which makes it affordable to individual investors.
We have detailed articles regarding RTB investments below, so check out these informative posts if you want to learn more about RTB:
- How to Invest in Philippines’ Retail Treasury Bonds (RTB)
- How to Buy Retail Treasury Bonds (RTB) in the Philippines
- Investing 101: Guide to Investing in Retail Treasury Bonds
Now, are you ready to invest online? Here are some reminders from the Bureau of Treasury regarding the RTB-22 offering which lasts until March 8, 2019. Make sure you comply, otherwise, your RTB online investment order will not be accepted.
- Only active peso accounts with Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) or Landbank of the Philippines (LBP) can be used in the RTB online investment facility.
- Accounts with “joint”, “in-trust-for”, and “by” cannot be used to make the online investment.
- The minimum amount you may invest is PHP 5,000 (Five Thousand Pesos) while the maximum amount per order is PHP 500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Pesos). Any amount in between is accepted as long as it is in multiples of PHP 5,000.
- Orders for RTB-22 will be accepted only from 2:00 PM of February 26, 2019 until 12:00 noon of March 8, 2019.
How to Invest in RTB Online?
Follow this step-by-step guide to be able to invest in Retail Treasury Bonds online.
Step 1. Visit the official RTB investment page of the Bureau of Treasury at http://www.treasury.gov.ph/rtb/
Step 2. Once you are ready to order, check the box confirming that you are “aware of the risks involved in purchasing Retail Treasury Bonds” and then click the “Ready to Order” button.
Step 3. You will then be transferred to the “RTB Online Facility” managed by Landbank of the Philippines (LBP). Fill out the online order form by inputting these details:
- Amount to Invest (in Philippine Peso) *
- Investor’s Name (Your name)
- Birth Date
- Country of Residence (choose from drop-down menu)
- Complete Address
- Email Address
- Contact Number
- Account Name (your Account Name and Investor Name must be the same; otherwise your order will be rejected)
- Settlement Bank **
* Investment Amount: The minimum amount of investment accepted is PHP 5,000 (Five Thousand Pesos). Higher amount must be in multiples of PHP 5,000 but cannot be greater than PHP 500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Pesos).
** Settlement Bank: You are required to choose your Settlement Bank, which is the bank account that will receive the interest earnings from your RTB investment and the full investment principal once the RTB matures. The Settlement Bank can either be Land Bank of the Philippines or Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
Take note: the RTB pays interest earnings and send this to your settlement bank account every quarter, that is, every 3 months. This interest payment is actual cash that you can withdraw. The original principal amount, however, will only become available to you upon maturity of the RTB or upon sale of the RTB prior to maturity.
Warning! When you sell your RTB prior to the maturity period, it is possible that you’ll receive an amount less than the initial investment. This means you are incurring a loss. This happens if the value of the RTB prior to maturity is less than the principal amount you invested. Since RTBs are tradable, once interest rates in the market go up, RTB prices could go down. However, if you wait until the maturity of your RTB investment, you will get back your original investment without a loss.
Step 4. Correctly input the CAPTCHA phrase, agree to the Terms and Conditions by checking the two checkboxes, and then click the “Continue” button.
Step 5. If you chose Landbank (as in the example in the screenshot below), you will be required to input your LandBank Account Number. Correctly type your Landbank Account Number, then input the CAPTCHA phrase, click the three checkboxes confirming your acceptance of the Terms and Conditions, before clicking the “Continue” button.
Step 6. The system will then send an OTP or “One Time Password” to your email account (see screenshot below).
Now, this is the tricky part. The Landbank system is, at times, unreliable and does not immediately send the OTP. In fact, it took them two (2) hours to send the OTP when we applied today.
Since the OTP is only valid for five (5) minutes, the OTP they sent 2 hours later did not work anymore. You might have to start from scratch and re-do your application again and monitor your email to check if you’ll receive the OTP as soon as you applied. It worked for us when we tried submitting the online application one more time.
Once you have a valid OTP, input it in the “One Time Password” field, then click “Submit”.
Step 7. Once the OTP is accepted, you will now be required to input the Joint Account Indicator (JAI) and PIN of your Landbank ATM.
In most cases, the JAI is “0” and this is already chosen for you in the dropdown menu, so no need to change this. For the PIN, you will have to use the PIN keypad (see screenshot below) to input your PIN. Click “Submit” after.
Step 8. If the payment is successful, you will see this confirmation message. You will also receive a system-generated notice of successful payment to your designated email address.
That’s it! You’re now a legitimate Retail Treasury Bonds (RTB) investor and creditor of the Philippine government! Congratulations!
* Want to learn more about investing in Philippine RTB? Here are our awesome educational articles!