Treasury bills are issued by Government of Pakistan (GoP) and are sold in the primary market through auctions conducted by State bank of Pakistan (SBP). These are sovereign instruments and are backed by full faith and credit of the GoP and hence are referred to as risk-free securities (without any default or credit risk but price risk is there). These are zero coupon instruments priced at discount with a yield equal to the difference between the purchase price and the maturity value (or face value).
T-bills are issued as paperless/script-less securities and have a liquid secondary market and are SLR eligible securities.
| Issuer | Government of Pakistan |
| Coupon | Zero Coupon (Issued at discount) |
| Tenor | 3, 6 & 12 Month |
| Denominations | Multiple of PKR 5,000 |
| Withholding Tax | Deducted at source |
| Who can buy | Anyone can buy from Auctions or from the secondary market |
| Redemption | T-Bills are not redeemable before maturity |
| Tradable | Traded freely in a liquid Secondary Market and are easily transferable |
| Custodianship | Client’s investments are held in the Investor Portfolio of Securities (IPS) Account managed through Subsidiary General Ledger Accounts with banks |
PIBs are long-term, semi-annual coupon-based instruments issued by Government of Pakistan (GoP) and are sold in the primary market through auctions conducted by State bank of Pakistan (SBP). These are sovereign instruments and are backed by full faith and credit of the GoP and hence are referred to as risk-free securities (without any default or credit risk but price risk is there). PIBs can trade at premium or discount depending on whether the market yield/rate on these instruments are lower or higher than the coupon rate.
PIBs are issued as paperless/script-less securities and have a liquid secondary market and are SLR eligible securities.
| Issuer | Government of Pakistan |
| Tenor | 3, 5, 10, & 20 Years |
| Coupon | As announced by GoP from time to time. |
| Denominations | Multiple of PKR 100,000 |
| Withholding Tax | Deducted at source |
| Who can buy | Anyone can buy from Auctions or from the secondary market |
| REdemption | PIBs are not redeemable before maturity |
| Tradable | Traded freely in a liquid Secondary Market and are easily transferable |
| Custodianship | Client’s investments are held in the Investor Portfolio of Securities (IPS) Account managed through Subsidiary General Ledger Accounts with banks |