US Treasury triples buyback size of longer-dated government debt

The US Treasury quietly did something significant on September 9, 2026. It confirmed a plan to buy back up to $6 billion in 10- to 20-year nominal coupon securities the following day, tripling the $2 billion per-operation ceiling that had been the program’s prior limit. The backstory starts in August. On August 19, Treasury announced it would at minimum double the maximum size of its liquidity-support buyback operations for longer-dated nominal coupon securities, raising the floor to $4 billion per operation starting September 9 and running through November 4. When the first actual operation under that new mandate came in at $6 billion, it landed above the floor but, apparently, below what the market had already priced in as the new normal. What the Treasury is doing and why it matters The Treasury steps into the secondary market to purchase older, less-liquid bonds, known as off-the-run Treasuries, injecting cash into the system and tightening spreads on securities that would otherwise sit in dealer inventory gathering dust. The program was revived in May 2024 after a long absence, initially framed as a tool to smooth liquidity rather than to manage interest rates. By early 2025, ...