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Volume 1, Issue 2 – April 2003

Feature Article

SLGS Sales Suspended

The Treasury Department issued a statement dated February 5, 2003, that discussed the projected debt subject to limit. The statement said, "Debt subject to limit is expected to reach the statutory ceiling of $6,400 billion on or about February 20th and will likely remain above the current debt ceiling thereafter."

For the second time in less than a year, the Treasury Department has suspended the sale of SLGS. The suspension went into effect on February 19, 2003, at 2:00 p.m. No new subscriptions are to be accepted after that time.

This is different from the last suspension. In May 2002, SLGS sales were suspended, but Public Debt continued to accept new subscriptions for the purpose of locking in a SLGS rate. These subscriptions were kept in a "held" status until the suspension was lifted. Once the suspension was over, all the held subscriptions were issued.

The February 5 press release continued on to say, "On current projections, this additional limited borrowing capacity may only be adequate to meet the government's needs until the beginning of April, when recurring benefit and tax refund payments occur." This means we can expect the suspension of SLGS to continue for a while.

To compare how the suspension has affected the work in Special Investments Branch, we can look at the number of subscriptions outstanding for the first week of March 2003 and the same week in 2002. In early March 2002 (no suspension), there were 385 outstanding subscriptions. For the first week of March in 2003, there were only 170 subscriptions waiting to issue. That is a decrease of 45% in outstanding SLGS subscriptions.

While the number of subscriptions has decreased since March 2002, a comparison of the outstanding par is quite different. Currently, the outstanding principal of SLGS is $149 billion. Last year at this time, the outstanding principal was $140 billion. This reflects the trend of larger dollar advance refunding deals over the past year. Several subscriptions were for over $1 billion in SLGS.

For updated information about the debt ceiling suspension, check our website, www.slgs.gov

Coming Events

  • Howard, Tonya, and Sue of the Special Investments Branch at Public Debt will be attending the 97th annual Government Finance Officer's Association (GFOA) Conference in New York City on May 18-21, 2003. Our booth number is 2025. Stop by and see us!

FYI

  • Current SLGS regulations dated September 13, 2000 state that if you are a SLGSafe user, you must use SLGSafe for all transactions. Exceptions to this rule would be if you have received email notice that SLGSafe is down or if you are having system problems.

SLGSSafe Power Tips

Each newsletter we will give you tips on how to use SLGSafe.

  1. After downloading your second certificate, you should use your previous password (PIN) or authorization code to log onto SLGSafe. The new authorization code you just used to download the new certificate will not work. If you have any trouble with this, call Public Debt's IT Service Desk at (304) 480-7777.
  2. If you set your own password (PIN)/ authorization code, you must follow Public Debt's password rules. The password must be at least 8 characters long; have at least 1 capital letter and at least 1 lower case letter; have at least 1 special character (*&^%); and, at least 1 number. An example is Johnny#1.