Sales of public securities to individuals via the internet totaled R$3.53 billion in March, the National Treasury announced this Tuesday (30). The value rose 16.1% compared to January, but fell 48.4% compared to March last year, when sales had reached a record.
The historic monthly record for Tesouro Direto occurred in March last year, when sales totaled R$6.842 billion. At the time, sales reached the highest monthly volume ever recorded because bonds adjusted by the Selic Rate (basic interest rates for the economy) expired, which were exchanged for new papers.
The securities most sought after by investors in March were those adjusted by the Selic (basic interest rate of the economy), whose share of sales reached 61.5%. Bonds linked to inflation (Broad National Consumer Price Index – IPCA) corresponded to 25.4% of the total, while pre-fixed bonds, with interest rates defined at the time of issuance, were 8.6%.
Intended for financing retirements, Tesouro Renda+, launched at the beginning of 2023, accounted for 3.4% of sales. Created in August last year, the new Treasury Educa+ title, which aims to finance savings for higher education, attracted just 1.1% of sales.
The interest in securities linked to basic interest rates is justified by the high level of the Selic Rate. In March 2021, the Central Bank (BC) began raising the Selic. The rate, which was at 2% per year, at the lowest level in history, remained at 13.75% per year between January 2022 and August 2023. Even with the recent drops in basic interest rates, currently at 10.75% per year year, rates remain attractive.
The total Treasury Direct stock reached R$133.27 billion at the end of March, an increase of 1.39% compared to the previous month (R$131.46 billion) and 14.76% compared to March last year (R$ 116.14 billion). This increase occurred because sales exceeded redemptions by R$657.6 million in the last month.
Investors
Regarding the number of investors, 292.4 thousand participants registered in the program last month. The total number of investors reached 28,003,946. In the last 12 months, the number of investors has increased by 15.1%. The total number of active investors (with open operations) reached 2,553,939, an increase of 15.5% in 12 months.
The use of Tesouro Direto by small investors can be seen in the considerable number of sales of up to R$5,000, which corresponded to 82.4% of the total 550,172 sales transactions that took place in March. Investments of up to R$1,000 alone represented 58.8%. The average value per operation reached R$6,417.17.
Investors are preferring short-term roles. Sales of bonds of up to five years represent 64.9% of the total. Operations with terms between five and ten years correspond to 14.7% of the total. Papers with a maturity of more than ten years represented 20.4% of sales.
The complete balance sheet of Tesouro Direto is available on the Tesouro Transparente page.
Fund-raising
Tesouro Direto was created in January 2002 to popularize this type of application and allow individuals to purchase public securities directly from the National Treasury, via the internet, without the intermediation of financial agents. The investor only needs to pay a semi-annual fee to B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, which has custody of the securities. More information can be obtained on the Tesouro Direto website.
The sale of bonds is one of the ways that the government has to raise resources to pay debts and honor commitments. In exchange, the National Treasury undertakes to return the amount with an additional fee that may vary according to the Selic rate, inflation rates, exchange rate or a rate defined in advance in the case of pre-fixed securities.
