In brief

  • In September 2026 the State is putting on sale securities worth 7,200 million lei, that is 7.2 billion. The sum is split into 2,000 million in discount treasury certificates and 5,200 million in benchmark government bonds. The values in the two tables of the order close exactly on the figure in Article 1.
  • The calendar has ten auctions, two for certificates and eight for bonds, plus eight supplementary sessions of non-competitive bids. All eight bond series are reopenings of older issues, the oldest of them launched in September 2018.
  • Only a primary dealer, that is a bank accepted in this role by the Ministry of Finance and the National Bank, may submit a bid directly at the auctions. An individual can reach these securities only through such a dealer, with a non-competitive bid of at least 5,000 lei, within the limit of 25% of each issue.
Act: MF Order no. 1.159/2026 on the prospectuses for the issue of discount treasury certificates and benchmark government bonds for September 2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 738 of 2 September 2026
In force from: 2 September 2026, the date of publication

The Ministry of Finance has published the borrowing calendar for September 2026: 7.2 billion lei in ten auctions, the first of them one day after the order appeared in the Official Gazette of Romania. Order no. 1.159/2026 was signed on 31 August 2026 and appeared on 2 September, and the first auction is scheduled for 3 September. The act approves two prospectuses, one for discount treasury certificates and one for benchmark government bonds, both in lei. It is the usual mechanism for covering the budget deficit and refinancing debt reaching maturity, distinct from the euro denominated issues launched in August 2026.

The 7.2 billion lei are not raised in one go. The sum is split over ten sessions spread across the whole month, and each session has its own series of securities, its own maturity and its own announced value. Treasury certificates take 2,000 million lei, in two equal tranches of one billion each. Benchmark bonds take the remaining 5,200 million, unevenly divided: five auctions of 800 million and three of 500 million.

Discount treasury certificates are short securities that pay no periodic interest. The State sells them below their nominal value and buys them back at maturity at the full value, and the buyer’s gain is precisely the difference. The two September series have a nominal value of 5,000 lei apiece and mature on 29 March 2027 and 15 September 2027. The table also gives their duration: 203 days for the first, that is a little over six months, and 364 days for the second, that is practically a year, both counts confirmed from the issue date.

Benchmark bonds work differently. They are long securities with a coupon, that is an annual interest payment made on a fixed date. „Benchmark” means reference series: instead of inventing a new series at every auction, the State reopens the same series several times, until each accumulates a large volume. A large volume means the security is traded frequently on the secondary market, and its price becomes the reference against which market interest rates are measured. All eight September 2026 series are reopenings, and Article 2 of Annex no. 2 states plainly that their values may grow further, through later reopenings.

The oldest series on the list, ROVRZSEM43E4, was launched in September 2018 and carries a coupon of 5.00%. The most expensive, ROOFOYB15203, launched in February 2025, carries a coupon of 7.65%. The rest sit between these two values. Weighted by the value of each auction, the average coupon of the September bond offer is roughly 6.84%, a figure calculated from the table in the order. A caveat, though: the coupon is the interest written on the security when it was launched, not the cost at which the State is borrowing now. The real cost comes out of the allotment price, which is set at the auction and published the same day.

For retail investors, September also brings the FIDELIS series, with tax-free interest of up to 7.50% in lei and 6.30% in euro, launched by MF Order no. 1.178/2026.

Also for retail savers, in the same month the Ministry of Finance reopens the Tezaur programme, with subscriptions for September-October 2026.

What it changes in practice

The order sets a calendar and some ceilings, and that is all. It creates no obligations for citizens and changes no general rule. Its direct effect shows up in three places.

First, at the National Bank of Romania, which runs the primary and the secondary market for government securities and receives the bids. Bids are submitted on the day of the auction, between 10:00 and 12:00, and the session begins after that window closes. For the supplementary sessions the window is shorter, between 10:00 and 11:00. The result is established the same day, at the headquarters of the National Bank, by an auction committee, and is made public.

Second, at the primary dealers. They are the only ones who may submit bids. They submit on their own account and on the account of their clients, individuals and companies. Credit institutions cannot appear as clients submitting a non-competitive bid, the order excludes them explicitly, by reference to the definition in Government Emergency Ordinance no. 99/2006.

Third, at the end buyer. For discount certificates, non-competitive bids are executed at the weighted average yield obtained by the competitive bids. For bonds, at the weighted average price. In other words, whoever enters with a non-competitive bid accepts from the outset the price the auction produces, without negotiating. In exchange, they do not risk being left out because they asked for too high a yield.

There is one more effect that the prospectus does not show. The buyer of a reopened bond does not pay only the price. They also pay the interest accrued from the last coupon payment up to the settlement date, a sum set out in the table for each series. It ranges from 46.11 lei to 295.89 lei per security of 5,000 lei, values that reproduce to the last ban from the coupon rate and the coupon date in the initial prospectus, on a 365 day year convention. In practice, for series RON4D08H94V4 the buyer adds a further 5.9% of the nominal value to the price, because they are entering 320 days after the last coupon payment.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Legally, nothing. Order no. 1.159/2026 does not repeal and does not replace the August prospectuses. It contains no repealing provision, neither express nor implied. Monthly prospectuses do not cancel each other out, because each exhausts its effects in the month for which it was issued, by working through its own calendar. The general framework remains the one in Government Emergency Ordinance no. 64/2007 on public debt, in the framework regulation approved by MF Order no. 318/2022 and in National Bank regulations no. 8/2022 and no. 10/2024.

What actually changes is the specific offer. The series put on sale are different, the maturities are different, the coupons are different. Article 4(1) of Annex no. 2 refers, for each series, to the order that originally launched it and to the month of launch. From there one can see that in September 2026 the State is re-tapping bonds issued over eight years, between September 2018 and June 2026, of which two series, RO3WE4HG1QE2 and ROP40KW7AAJ5, come from the same recent order, no. 613 of 2 June 2026.

The maturity structure changes too. Article 1 of Annex no. 2 announces the reopening of series with maturities at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11 and 15 years, that is seven categories, but the table has eight rows. The mismatch is only apparent. The maturity column in the table shows that one category appears twice, the 10 year one, with series RO3WE4HG1QE2, launched in June 2026 and maturing in 2036, and ROVRZSEM43E4, launched in September 2018 and maturing in 2029. The other six appear once each. The list in Article 1 counts categories, not rows, and anyone expecting a one to one match is stuck for nothing.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • The calendar is public and complete for the whole month, with dates, series, maturities and values. Anyone following the market knows from 2 September 2026 what is coming until 30 September, without waiting for one off announcements.
  • The tables are arithmetically correct. The total of the ten auctions gives exactly the 7,200 million lei in Article 1, and all eight accrued interest values reproduce from the coupon rate and the coupon date, to the second decimal.
  • Non-competitive bids remain open to individuals and companies, through a dealer, up to 25% of each issue. Over the month as a whole that means a theoretical ceiling of 1,800 million lei accessible to clients who are not banks.
  • The footnote in Annex no. 2 states that the bond series are traded both on the secondary market run by the National Bank and on the regulated market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Anyone who misses the auction knows where else to find them.
  • The rule for non-working days is written out in full, in both annexes: payment moves to the next working day, without late payment interest, and if that day would fall in the following month, it is brought forward by one day, so that payment stays within the same month.

What remains a problem

  • The window between publication and the first auction is a single day. The order appears on 2 September 2026, the first auction takes place on 3 September. A client who wants to give instructions to a dealer has to move within 24 hours, assuming they read the Official Gazette of Romania on the day it appeared.
  • The figure of 7,200 million lei binds nobody. Article 8 of Annex no. 1 and Article 9 of Annex no. 2 let the ministry increase, reduce or cancel the amount borrowed on each series, and Article 2 of Annex no. 2 allows later increases through reopenings. The announced figure is an intention, not a ceiling.
  • The supplementary sessions of non-competitive bids are entirely closed to the public. Only primary dealers may buy there, in their own name and on their own account, and only those that took part in the reference auction. The up to 780 million lei extra that can come out of these sessions passes entirely through banks.
  • The certificates prospectus mentions the tax treatment, in Article 12 of Annex no. 1. The bonds prospectus has no equivalent article, even though it is precisely the bond buyer who collects a coupon and has something to declare.
  • The threshold of 5,000 lei per tranche, to which accrued interest is added, is not high, but access necessarily runs through a primary dealer. Nowhere does the order say who those dealers are, and their list has to be looked up separately.

Practical advice

  1. If you are interested in a particular series, note the auction date, not the issue date. The order requires bids to reach the National Bank on the day of the auction, between 10:00 and 12:00, so the instruction to your dealer has to be given earlier.
  2. Check whether the bank where you hold your account is a primary dealer. If it is not, your bid cannot reach the auction through it, whatever the amount.
  3. For bonds, work out the total sum, not just the price. To the 5,000 lei nominal value is added the accrued interest from the table, between 46.11 and 295.89 lei per security, and the allotment price itself may be above or below 100%.
  4. If you want certainty of execution, the non-competitive bid is the option the order provides: it is executed at the weighted average yield, or the weighted average price, of the auction. If you want to pick your own yield, you need a competitive bid, and that can be submitted only by a dealer.
  5. Follow the official statement issued after each auction. The order says the result is established the same day and made public, and that is also where the value of the next day’s supplementary session appears, calculated as 15% of the amount allotted, rounded up to the nearest multiple of 100,000 lei.
  6. If you missed an auction, the bond series remain available on the secondary market, both at the National Bank and at the Bucharest Stock Exchange, under the footnote in Annex no. 2. Discount certificates have no similar mention in this order.
  7. Do not confuse this order with the government securities programmes sold directly to the public. The text published on 2 September 2026 covers only primary market issues, which are reached through a primary dealer.
  8. On the tax treatment, the order refers to „the legislation in force” and says nothing more. If the amount matters to you, the question goes to a tax adviser before the auction, not after you collect the coupon.

Frequently asked questions

How much is the State borrowing in September 2026 in total?
The announced nominal value is 7,200 million lei, that is 7.2 billion. Of that, 2,000 million are discount treasury certificates and 5,200 million are benchmark government bonds. Up to 15% of the amount allotted at the bond auctions can be added to this sum, through the supplementary sessions of non-competitive bids, that is at most a further 780 million lei if everything is fully allotted.
How many auctions are there and when do they take place?
Ten auctions. For certificates, on 3 and 14 September 2026. For bonds, on 3, 7, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24 and 28 September 2026. All fall on a Monday or a Thursday. On 3 and on 14 September there are two auctions on the same day, one for certificates and one for bonds. Each bond auction is followed the next day by a supplementary session of non-competitive bids.
What does „discount” mean?
That the security pays no interest along the way. The State sells it now below its nominal value and buys it back at maturity at the full value of 5,000 lei. The buyer’s gain is exactly the difference between the two prices, collected once, at maturity.
What does „benchmark” mean?
Reference series. The State reopens the same series several times, instead of creating a new one at each auction, until the series accumulates a large volume. The large volume makes it easy to trade, and its price becomes the reference against which the market measures interest rates at that maturity. All eight bond series of September 2026 are reopenings, not new issues.
Can an ordinary person buy directly at the auction?
No. Bids are submitted only by primary dealers, that is by the banks accepted in this role. An individual can take part only indirectly, as a client of a primary dealer, with a non-competitive bid. The dealer submits the bid on the client’s account.
What is the minimum amount?
For certificates, each tranche of a bid, competitive or non-competitive, is at least 5,000 lei. For bonds, the minimum value of a tranche equals the unit nominal value of the security, again 5,000 lei. For bonds, however, the accrued interest is added as well, between 46.11 and 295.89 lei per security, depending on the series.
How much of each issue can reach buyers who are not banks?
At most 25% of the value of each announced issue, through non-competitive bids. Credit institutions are explicitly excluded from the category of clients who may submit such bids. Over the month as a whole, the theoretical ceiling is 1,800 million lei, a quarter of the 7,200 million.
What are the supplementary sessions of non-competitive bids?
Sessions organised the day after each bond auction, at which a further volume equal to 15% of the amount allotted is sold, at the average price set in the reference auction. The order reserves them exclusively for the primary dealers that took part in the reference auction in their own name and on their own account, whether or not they won. Clients have no access to them.
Does the order repeal the August prospectuses?
No. The text contains no repealing provision. Article 3 of the order merely states that the act is published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I. Monthly prospectuses do not abolish one another, each exhausts its effects by working through the calendar of the month for which it was issued.
What happens if a payment falls on a non-working day?
Payment is made on the next working day, without late payment interest. If that day would fall in the following month, the payment date is brought forward by one working day, so that payment stays within the same month, with the full amount. Securities in this situation remain the property of the registered holder and cannot be traded. The rule appears identically in both annexes.

Editorial analysis

Technically, the order is clean: the ten values in the tables add up to exactly 7,200 million lei, the figure in Article 1, 2,000 million from the two certificate issues and 5,200 million from the eight bond issues. The eight accrued interest amounts, taken from the coupon rate, the coupon date in the initial prospectus and the issue date on a 365 day year convention, reproduce to the second decimal, from 46.11 lei for ROOFOYB15203 to 295.89 lei for RON4D08H94V4. The eight residual maturities hold up the same way.

What is interesting is what emerges when the articles are combined. Article 1 of the order announces 7,200 million lei. Article 8 of Annex no. 1 and Article 9 of Annex no. 2 allow the ministry to increase, reduce or cancel the amount on each series. Article 2 of Annex no. 2 allows increases through later reopenings, and the supplementary sessions add up to 15% on top of whatever is allotted. The practical result: this calendar can produce any sum between zero and roughly 7,980 million lei. The figure announced in capitals in Article 1 does not commit even as an estimate, and the public has nothing in the act to tell it how much was actually raised, other than following statement after statement, day by day.

The second observation concerns the duration of the borrowing. Weighting the maturities by the value of each auction, the average residual maturity of the bond offer is around 5.9 years, and if the certificates are added, at 203 and 364 days respectively, the average for the whole month falls to roughly 4.5 years. The weighted average coupon of the bonds is around 6.84%. These are figures that appear nowhere in the order, even though they describe better than any table what kind of debt is being contracted in September 2026: mostly medium term, with a single series running beyond ten years, RO677ZOKPGQ8, maturing in 2040.

The third observation is an asymmetry between the two annexes. The certificates prospectus has an article on the tax treatment, Article 12. The bonds prospectus has none, even though the bond buyer is the one collecting a coupon year after year. Admittedly, the article in Annex no. 1 does not say much, it refers to „the legislation in force”. That is precisely why its absence from the other annex is hard to explain other than by drafting habit.

What should be changed

  • A total line under each table. The reader would see at once that the two certificate issues make 2,000 million and the eight bond issues 5,200 million, without having to add up eight figures to check whether the sum in Article 1 closes.
  • The note on the secondary market, in the certificates prospectus as well. Annex no. 2 states, in a footnote, that the bond series are also traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Annex no. 1 says nothing about what anybody can do with a treasury certificate before maturity.
  • An article on the tax treatment in the bonds prospectus too. Symmetry with Annex no. 1 would cost one line and would spare the coupon buyer a separate search.
  • Publication of the calendar at least five working days before the first auction. In September 2026 the order appears on the 2nd and the first auction takes place on the 3rd. A client who wants to give instructions to a dealer effectively has one day.
  • The list of primary dealers, indicated in the prospectus. The order says four times that only primary dealers may submit bids, but nowhere does it say where their updated list is to be found. One reference would turn an abstract restriction into usable information.
  • A single name for the SaFIR system. Annex no. 1 calls it „the system for the registration and settlement of government securities operations”, Annex no. 2 „the system for the deposit and settlement of financial instruments”. It is the same system, and the difference of name within the same act helps nobody.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 738 of 2 September 2026 48 pages PDF, 4.6 MB the act starts on page 45

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.