Washtenaw County, Michigan placed a $5 million investment using GFOA YieldAdvantage, an Internet auction website offered by the Government Finance Officers Association. Traditionally, government entities and school districts solicit bids from banks and broker-dealers via phone. Using the GFOA YieldAdvantage website, state and local governments are able to solicit bids easily and efficiently via the Internet and to conduct an on-line auction in which these banks bid against each other for the deposit.
Using GFOA YieldAdvantage, Washtenaw County held auctions for certificates of deposit for five different maturities ranging from 80 days to 111 days, each for $1 million. Bids for the certificates of deposit were submitted in an "open" auction where the banks bidding saw whether they were leading to win award of the County's investment or needed to improve and resubmit their rates. A total of 10 banks submitted 122 bids for the five certificates of deposit.
In December 2003, the GFOA entered into an alliance with Grant Street Group, a fixed income Internet auction house and parent of MuniAuction, to create the GFOA YieldAdvantage website (www.gfoayield.com).