US Treasury announces buyback of up to $6B in longer-dated debt

The US Treasury is stepping up its efforts to shore up the long end of the bond market, announcing it will double the maximum size of its liquidity-support buyback operations for longer-dated securities. Starting September 9, 2026, the cap on each operation in the 10- to 20-year and 20- to 30-year nominal coupon sectors jumps from $2 billion to at least $4 billion. The keyword there is “at least.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated the operations could go even larger depending on market conditions, a notable concession that liquidity in the long end is, in his own words, “very poor.” What the Treasury is actually doing The expanded buyback program will run from September 9 through November 4, 2026, targeting so-called “off-the-run” Treasuries. These are older issues that trade less frequently than their newly minted counterparts, making them harder to buy and sell without moving the price. The rationale is straightforward. In previous buyback operations, dealers consistently offered far more bonds than the $2 billion cap could absorb. When sellers keep lining up and you can only take a fraction of what they are offering, the signal is clear: the limit needs to go up. The ma...