The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is to immobilise Treasury Bills (TBs) with effect from Friday, 19 May 2000. This will eliminate the physical handling of scrip and speed up the settlement process. This means that in future TBs will not be issued in physical format. Instead, buyers of TBs will receive a statement from their custodial bank and/or a broker's note from their broker detailing their holdings.The SARB will maintain two accounts in the Financial Instruments Register (FIR) for all custodial banks, branches or subsidiaries of foreign banks and mutual banks. One account will contain particulars of the banks' own TB holdings and the other account will reflect the combined TB holdings of their clients.Non FIR account holders (i.e. brokers and corporates) and private individuals will still be permitted to tender, but they will be required to nominate a FIR account holder as their custodian. The nominated custodian and also the relevant broker or corporate, dealing on behalf of a client, will be required to keep a record of their clients' TB holdings. If two clients of different banks trade TBs, both parties will be required to report the deal to their nominated banker. The SARB will only transfer the scrip between the relevant FIR accounts on receipt of a transfer instruction from both these banks. The transfer instructions for the transfer of the scrip in the FIR are carried out on a Delivery Free of Payment (DFP) basis and/or a Receive Free of Payment (RFP) basis. Even though the two counterparties to the deal must agree on the method of payment, every effort should be made to utilise the South African Multiple Options Settlement (SAMOS) system when making payments for these deals.The immobilisation process does not apply to TBs issued before the immobilisation date.Full details of the procedures to be followed by tenderers for, and buyers and sellers of these instruments can be obtained from the SARB's website underMONEY AND CAPITAL MARKETS. ​