Colombian Central Bank Holds Auction to Accumulate International Reserves

The Colombian central bank today auctioned off a planned $400 million USD in put options within its ongoing program to accumulate international reserves.

The put options, which are being sold to account for the International Monetary Fund potentially reducing Colombia’s $11.5 billion flexible credit line in the coming years, will be in force from December 4 to December 28, according to the Bogotá-based Banco de la República.

Photo: Juan José Echavarría, governor of the Colombian central bank, Banco de la República. (Credit: Banco de la República)

The bank announced that the date of the auction last week following its monthly meeting. The program was launched on October 1 following the Banco de la República’s September meeting and has taken place each month since.

At the time that the program began, Colombia held some $47.7 billion USD in international reserves, according to CNBC, and the central bank last mounted a targeted accumulated reserves program with auctions in May 2008.

Juan José Echavarría, the president of the central bank’s board, has said that the objectives of the reserve accumulation program include reducing external vulnerability but it is not intended to affect the exchange rate goals or interfere with Banco de la República’s monetary policy stance, according to the local publication La Republica.