US Treasury Secretary Bessent could tap near USD 1tln treasury general account to fund bond buybacks, according to sources cited by CNBC
- The officials would not say how much, if any, of the TGA would be used or when such an announcement could be made.
- There was no implication it could be used beyond the purchase of off-the-run securities that were the focus of last week's announcement.
- But they were clear that it is considered to be available.
Buyback programmes of this kind have historically been funded through offsetting issuance, typically at the front end, which leaves them roughly duration-neutral in aggregate. Funding the purchases instead out of the TGA is the distinguishing feature here: a drawdown of the cash balance injects reserves into the banking system and functions mechanically as a form of de facto easing, closer in effect to a smaller balance sheet drain than to a conventional buyback. That changes the read on the programme from a market-function operation, aimed at off-the-run liquidity, toward one with an additive liquidity impulse, and it is the funding source rather than the purchase size that rates desks will key on. The open questions are the scale, the cadence, and whether the TGA is subsequently rebuilt, since rebuilding reverses the reserve effect. Officials here have prior form in preferring bill-heavy funding and actively managing the cash balance as a policy lever, so a TGA-funded structure fits the established pattern rather than departing from it. Worth noting the constraint in the sourcing: the account is described as available for the off-the-run purchases already flagged, not as a new or expanded mandate. Follow-ons are any formal announcement on size and timing, and how the debt management guidance frames the net reserve impact against the bill share of issuance.