> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A Three-Month Government Treasury Bill Pays a Bank 1.10 Per Cent in Guyana and 6.43 in Jamaica. Banks in Both Countries Buy More Paper Than They Lend. - URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-jamaica-treasury-bill-yield-gap-banks-park-2026/ - Published: 2026-11-07T22:55:44.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-08T05:21:14.000Z - Description: The Bank of Jamaica sold three-month Treasury bills on 4 November at an average yield of 6.43 per cent. The same instrument pays a Guyanese bank 1.10. Parking clears a Guyanese bank 0.29 points over what it pays savers, and a Jamaican bank 4.33. - Author: Theon Alleyne - Tags: Business, Guyana, Jamaica, Banking, Analysis, Beat: compliance-amlcft-derisking, MSME: direct **Quick summary:** The Bank of Jamaica sold three-month Treasury bills on 4 November at an average yield of 6.43 per cent. The same kind of bill pays a bank in Guyana 1.10 per cent. Banks in both countries put more into government paper than into loans, for very different rewards. By LCN Business Desk A Jamaican bank that lends the government money for three months is paid 6.43 per cent. A Guyanese bank doing the same thing is paid 1.10. Both sets of banks are buying more government paper than they are lending to businesses. ## What did Jamaica's bills pay? More than six per cent on every tenor, and buyers wanted more than was on offer. | Bill | Matures | Offered | Applied for | Average yield | | ----------- | ---------- | ------- | ----------- | ------------- | | Three-month | 5 Feb 2027 | J$700m | J$912.5m | **6.43463%** | | Six-month | 7 May 2027 | J$700m | J$1,197.1m | 6.10439% | | Nine-month | 5 Aug 2027 | J$800m | J$1,314.1m | 6.31677% | *[Government of Jamaica Treasury bill auction](https://boj.org.jm/treasury-bill-results-of-auction-04-november-2026/?ref=lacaribenanews.com), opened 4 November 2026 and settled 6 November, published by the Bank of Jamaica for the Debt Management Branch of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.* Buyers asked for J$3.42 billion against the J$2.2 billion on offer. The Ministry took J$2.2 billion and left the rest. Total bills outstanding came to J$10.17 billion on settlement. ## What does the same bill pay in Guyana? 1.10 per cent, on the central bank's own tables. A 91-day Guyana Treasury bill paid 1.10 per cent at the end of 2025, on the [Bank of Guyana's published rates](https://bankofguyana.org.gy/bog/images/research/Reports/BOG%5FAnnual%5FReport%5F2025.pdf?ref=lacaribenanews.com). That is 5.33 percentage points below what Jamaica's three-month bill paid last week. Both are short loans to a government, in that government's own currency, bought mainly by that country's banks. Each government pays a different price to borrow at home. ## What does a bank earn above what it pays savers? In Guyana, almost nothing. In Jamaica, more than four points. | | Paid to savers | Earned on a three-month bill | Gap | | ----------- | -------------- | ---------------------------- | --------------- | | **Guyana** | 0.81% | 1.10% | **0.29 points** | | **Jamaica** | 2.1% | 6.43% | **4.33 points** | *Guyana: Bank of Guyana tables for the end of 2025\. Jamaica: deposit rate as reported by the Jamaica Observer from Bank of Jamaica data in April 2026, bill yield from the 4 November auction. The two countries' figures are from different months and compare orders of magnitude, not one date.* ::: **A Guyanese bank clears 0.29 points by parking. A Jamaican bank clears 4.33.** ::: That gap is the whole argument for parking in Jamaica. It is not an argument at all in Guyana. ## So why do Guyana's banks park? Not because the paper pays. It barely beats what they pay their own depositors. [Guyana's banks earn 7.85 per cent lending and 1.10 on government bills, and all six hold money abroad](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-banks-1-2-per-cent-government-paper-money-abroad-2026/). Five of the six put more new money into securities than into loans. A bank giving up seven points of lending margin for 0.29 is not chasing a return. What it is avoiding is the lending itself. [Paragraph 52 of Supervision Guideline No. 5 treats a business's own specialised plant and machinery as not normally well-secured](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-bank-loan-collateral-equipment-not-well-secured-guideline-5/), and a loan the Bank of Guyana does not count as well secured carries a 20 per cent provision. Paper carries none. One bank has moved. Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited, the country's largest, [lent G$34.6 billion of the G$55.1 billion it took in last year, having bought more paper than it lent the year before](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/republic-bank-guyana-advances-exceed-treasury-bills-fy2026-2026/). ## What does this mean for a business? The price of credit in your country is set partly by what your government pays to borrow. Where a government pays over six per cent for three-month money, a bank has a safe, liquid, capital-light place to put deposits, and a borrower has to beat it. Where a government pays 1.10, the bank has no such excuse, and the reason it still parks lies in the rules on security rather than in the rate. That is the question to carry into a loan meeting in Georgetown: not what the bill pays, because it pays almost nothing, but what the bank will count as security. Jamaica and Guyana already run in opposite directions on money moving through banks. [Guyana's remittances moved into the banking system while Jamaica's moved out of it](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-jamaica-remittances-banks-agencies-opposite-directions-2026/). ## What is not established here? **Jamaica's current lending and deposit rates from the central bank's own table.** The deposit figure of 2.1 per cent and a lending rate of 11.9 per cent were reported by the Jamaica Observer in April 2026 from Bank of Jamaica data. The Bank of Jamaica's own commercial bank rate pages were not read for this report. **Whether Guyana's 1.10 per cent still stands.** It is the rate in the Bank of Guyana's tables for the end of 2025\. No more recent published Guyanese auction result was read. **Why Jamaica's six-month bill yields less than its three-month and nine-month bills.** The auction results carry the three yields and no explanation. **What Jamaica's banks hold.** This report establishes what Jamaican government paper pays. It does not measure how much of it Jamaica's banks hold against their loan books, which would need their own accounts. ### The entities \- **Bank of Jamaica** is Jamaica's central bank. It published the 4 November Treasury bill auction results for the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. - **Bank of Guyana** is Guyana's central bank and publishes the Guyanese interest rates used here. - **Treasury bill** is a short loan to a government. Jamaica's three-month bill settled on 6 November 2026 at an average yield of 6.43463 per cent. - **Supervision Guideline No. 5** is the Bank of Guyana rule on lending and security, whose paragraph 52 treats specialised plant and machinery as not normally well secured. - **Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited** is Guyana's largest bank and lent G$34.6 billion of the G$55.1 billion of new deposits it took in to 30 September 2026. ### What the title card says \- Kicker: Banking. - Headline: a three-month government Treasury bill pays a bank 1.10 per cent in Guyana and 6.43 in Jamaica. - Deck: the Bank of Jamaica's auction of 4 November 2026 settled on 6 November, against the Bank of Guyana's published rate for the end of 2025\. - Standfirst: banks in both countries buy more government paper than they lend. - Panel, "What the paper pays", sub-headed as the gap over what each country's banks pay savers, four rows: - Jamaica, three-month bill, 6.43 per cent. - Jamaica, paid to savers, 2.1 per cent. - Guyana, 91-day bill, 1.10 per cent. - Guyana, paid to savers, 0.81 per cent. - Panel note: Bank of Jamaica auction results of 4 November 2026; Bank of Guyana published tables for the end of 2025; Jamaican deposit rate as reported in April 2026\. - Chip: 5.33 points, the gap between the two countries on the same instrument. - Chip: 0.29 points, what a Guyanese bank clears by parking rather than paying savers. - Chip: 4.33 points, what a Jamaican bank clears doing the same. - Date line: 7 November 2026. ## Frequently Asked Questions What did Jamaica's Treasury bills pay in November 2026? The three-month bill averaged 6.43463 per cent. The six-month paid 6.10439 and the nine-month 6.31677\. The auction opened on 4 November and settled two days later. What does a Guyanese Treasury bill pay? A 91-day bill paid 1.10 per cent at the end of 2025\. That figure is in the Bank of Guyana's published tables. It sits 5.33 points below the Jamaican three-month bill. Was the Jamaican auction fully taken up? Buyers applied for J$3.42 billion. The offer was J$2.2 billion. All of it was allotted and the rest was left. Why does the gap matter to a borrower? Where government paper pays over six per cent, a bank has a safe place to put deposits, and a borrower has to beat that return. Where it pays 1.10 per cent, the bank clears only 0.29 points over what it pays savers. The reason it still prefers paper lies in the rules on security, not in the rate. Do Jamaica's banks also hold more paper than loans? Not established here. These figures show what Jamaican government paper pays. They do not show how much of it Jamaica's banks hold.