Commercial banks placed 866.09 billion rubles ($184 million) worth of bids for a 1 trillion ruble issue, according to the information from the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, where the trading takes place.
The bonds have a maturity date of one year, with the interest payable being fixed each quarter according to yields on the Treasury-bill market.
The new bonds yield an annual 52.88 percent for their first quarter.
Alexander Sarchev, MICEX stock department chief, explained the lack of interest from commercial banks by the fact that they learned about the new securities as late as last Wednesday.
"They just did not have time to inform their clients about the new issue," he said.
He added that banks preferred to use their clients' money to participate in the auction rather then risking their own funds.
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