Maes Benchmark Bills. One important difference between the two is that Reference Bills are offered in more maturities namely, one month (28 days), two months (56 days), three months (91 days), six months (182 days), and one year (364 days). Like U.S. Treasury bills and Benchmark Bills, Reference Bills are sold weekly using a Dutch auction. 1-month and 2-month Reference Bills are auctioned each week on Monday, while 3-month maturities are auctioned weekly on Tuesday. The 6-month and 1-year Reference Bills are auctioned every four weeks on Tuesday on an alternating schedule such that every two weeks either a 6-month or a 1-year maturity will be auctioned. In order to give their investors flexibility, Freddie Mac offers multiple settle- ment dates. For Reference bills auctioned on Mondays, investors may choose between cash and regular settlement dates. For those auctioned on Tuesdays, investors may choose between cash, regular, and skip-day settle- ment dates. Auctions of Reference Bills are announced on Thursday for the following week and have a minimum size of $1 billion. Exhibit 4.8 presents a Bloomberg DES (Security Description) of a 3- month Reference Bill that was auctioned on September 11, 2001 and matures on September 25, 2001. Exhibit 4.9 presents YA (Discount/ Yield Analysis). Note the yield on a bank discount basis for this Refer- ence Bill is 2.28154. Given the yield on a bank discount basis, the price is found the same way as the price of a Treasury bill in Chapter 3 by first solving for the dollar discount (D) as follows:   D = Yd´ F ´ (t /360)   where   Yd = discount yield F = face value t = number of days until maturity   The price is then   price = F - D   With a settlement day of September 20, 2001, the Reference Bill has 63 days remaining until maturity. Assuming a face value of $100 and a yield on bank discount basis of 2.28154%, D is equal to   D = 0.0228154 ´ $100 ´ (84/360) = $0.532359     price = $100 - $0.532359 = $99.467641