Corporate & Municipal CUSIP Request Volumes Surge In February - Corporate Equity And Debt Issuance Rise 43%

CUSIP Global Services (CGS) today announced the release of its CUSIP Issuance Trends Report for February 2021. The report, which tracks the issuance of new security identifiers as an early indicator of debt and capital markets activity over the next quarter, found a significant monthly increase in request volume for new corporate and municipal identifiers.

CUSIP identifier requests for the broad category of U.S. and Canadian corporate equity and debt rose 43.0% in February from last month. The monthly increase was driven largely by U.S. corporate equity and debt identifier requests, which increased by 21.2% and 111.9%, respectively. On a year-over-year basis, corporate CUSIP requests were down 25.3%, reflecting a significant year-over-year decline in January of 2021.

Monthly municipal volume also increased in February. The aggregate total of all municipal securities – including municipal bonds, long-term and short-term notes, and commercial paper – rose 23.8% versus January totals. On an annualized basis, municipal CUSIP identifier request volumes were down 0.6% through February. Texas led state-level municipal request volume with a total of 131 new CUSIP requests in February, followed by California with 97 and New York with 81.

"CUSIP request volumes have swung widely in the span of one month, signaling that the volatility we saw in 2020 may be with us for some time," said Gerard Faulkner, Director of Operations for CGS. "With continued uncertainty in the economy and interest rates possibly mounting a slow-but-steady increase, we can expect to see continued swings in the CUSIP Issuance Trends indicator throughout the first part of the year."

Requests for international equity and debt CUSIPs were mixed again in February. International equity CUSIP requests were down 8.8% versus January. International debt CUSIPs increased by 56.5% on a monthly basis. Syndicated loan requests were down 4.7% on a monthly basis and 7.4% year-over-year.

To view the full CUSIP Issuance Trends report for February, click here.

Following is a breakdown of new CUSIP Identifier requests by asset class year-to-date through February 2021: