CUSIP Data Forecasts Surge In U.S. Corporate And Muni Debt Issuance - Requests for New Corporate Debt CUSIPs Continue To Grow, Muni Volume Hits 4-Month High

CUSIP Global Services (CGS) today announced the release of its CUSIP Issuance Trends Report for October 2016. The report, which tracks the issuance of new security identifiers as an early indicator of debt and capital markets activity, found continued growth in the pre-trade market for corporate securities and municipal bonds.

CUSIP identifier requests for U.S. corporate debt and equity offerings totaled 1,818 in October, a 2% increase over September totals.  The growth was driven in large part by a surge in requests for new corporate debt offerings, which reached a 15-month high of 899.   On a year-over-year basis, corporate debt and equity CUSIP requests for the Americas was down 3% through October.

Municipal bond requests also climbed in October, reaching a 4-month high of 1,368, which is up 7% from September levels.  This was enough to drive year-over-year CUSIP request volume in the municipal bond category to an 8% increase over the same period in 2015. Texas, New York and California were the most active municipal bond issuers so far this year.

“October was notable for the strong volume of new CUSIP requests we received, but also for the record dollar value of bond offerings that were made over the course of the month,” said Gerard Faulkner, Director of Operations for CUSIP Global Services. “Clearly, we’re seeing a market environment in which debt issuers find it favorable to issue a large number of significant deals and our data supports that trend continuing into the near-term future.”

International debt and equity CUSIP International Numbers (CINS) volume were mixed in October.  International equity CINS decreased 32%, while international debt CINS increased 14% during the month. On a year-over-year basis, international equity requests were down 51% and international debt requests were down 9%, reflecting a volatile year of new instrument issuance activity in international markets.

“A number of factors are at play in this data. In addition to the overall favorable lending environment, we’re also seeing significant M&A deal volume, which is increasing the demand for new debt instruments to finance those transactions,” said Richard Peterson, Senior Director, S&P Global Market Intelligence. “This combination of low interest rates and relatively robust capital markets activity should create a recipe for strong security issuance volumes as we head into 2017.”

To view a copy of the full CUSIP Issuance Trends report, please click here.  

Following is a breakdown of New CUSIP Identifier requests by asset class year-to-date, through October 2016:

 

Asset Class	2016 ytd	2015 ytd	YOY Change
Long Term Municipal Notes	443	315	40.6%
CDs < 1 yr Maturity	3706	3076	20.5%
Municipal Bonds	13,583	12,618	7.6%
Private Placement Securities	2294	2249	2.0%
U.S. & Canada Corporates	18,812	19,395	-3.0%
CDs > 1 yr Maturity	6886	7233	-4.8%
International Debt	2247	2472	-9.1%
Short Term Municipal Notes	976	1203	-18.9%
International Equity[1]	1781	3798	-53.1%