Markey asks Treasury: any bugs in TAAPS?

WASHINGTON - Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., has asked the Treasury Department to make public any technical problems that primary dealers may have encountered since they began submitting automated bids for government debt.

The new bidding system, known as Treasury Automated Auction Processing System, or TAAPS, links dealers' computers directly to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for regular sales of bills, notes, and bonds. The new system was implemented on April 29.

Markey, who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee's telecommunications and finance subcommittee, also said that TAAPS does not appear to have reduced the time it takes Treasury officials to process tenders. Processing still takes 45 minutes to one hour, the same as under the old manual system, he said.

Markey made his comments in a July 6 letter to Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen that was released by Markey's office yesterday. The panel chairman asked for a response by July 27-30.

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