Saudis own $117B stake in the U.S.

Info was concealed for at least 42 years

Info concealed for 42 years; China still top holder of U.S. treasuries.

The U.S. Treasury has finally revealed Saudi Arabia’s holdings of U.S. debt — after four decades of keeping it secret. And it’s big.

The oil-rich nation was holding $116.8 billion in U.S. treasuries as of March 2016, the Treasury Department disclosed this week. That ended its long-standing practice of grouping the amount with other nations since Treasury began providing records on foreign ownership in 1974. Saudi Arabia’s holdings weren’t broken out separately but grouped in with more than a dozen other nations, mainly members of OPEC.

Investors for the first time can see how the oil-rich nation ranks in terms of owning U.S. government securities.

Saudi Arabia lands as the 13thlargest holder of U.S. treasuries, just behind India at $118.9 billion and ahead of Singapore with $112.7 billion. Saudi Arabia’s holdings dipped 2.5% from the record $119.8 million the country held in February.

While Saudi Arabia’s holdings are significant, they are smaller than what many had thought before, says Marilyn Cohen, CEO of bond management firm Envision Capital Management. Saudi Arabia’s holdings fall well behind gi- ants such as China and Japan, with holdings valued at $1.2 trillion and $1.1 trillion, respectively. The fact Saudi Arabia isn’t even in the top 10 limits any potential fallout of the disclosure on the Treasury market, Cohen says.

Bond investors are left puzzling over why the Treasury Department would suddenly disclose this information after keeping it masked for years, Cohen says.

“There’s something political going on behind the curtains,” she says. “It must have been some sort of political push that may never be disclosed.”

Saudi Arabia’s Treasury holdings were first reported by Bloomberg News, which issued a Freedom of Information Act request to access the data.