Uniform-price auctions for Swiss government bonds: Origin and evolution

Angelo Ranaldo and Dr. Enzo Rossi

Issue
2016-10

Pages
46

JEL classification
D44, G12, G20

Keywords
Government bonds, Treasury auctions, uniform-price auction

Year
2016

The Swiss Treasury has used the sealed-bid, uniform-price auction format for allocating government bonds since 1980. In this study, we examine the authorities' motivation for choosing the uniform-price auction. In addition, we describe how the institutional set-up evolved over time. It includes bidding requirements, class of bidders, pre-auction information, the bidding process, the determination of the cut-off price and the release of post-auction information. Finally, we provide the details of each of the 356 auctions that were held until and including 2014.