NEW YORK, June 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — CUSIP Global Services (CGS) today announced the release of its CUSIP Issuance Trends Report for May 2017. The report, which tracks the issuance of new security identifiers as an early indicator of debt and capital markets activity, found a surge in the pre-trade market for corporate and municipal bonds in May. This increased demand for new CUSIP IDs for corporate and municipal bonds is suggestive of a possible uptick in new security issuance volume over the coming weeks.
CUSIP identifier requests for U.S. and Canadian corporate debt and equity offerings totaled 2,289 in May, a 12% increase from April 2017 totals. So far this year, demand for new CUSIPs for both corporate debt and equity offerings are up 34% over the same period in 2016, reflecting the strong pace of request volume observed during February, March, and May of this year.
Municipal bond requests also increased in May. A total of 1,413 muni identifier requests were made during the month, an increase of 32% over April. This made May the most active month so far in 2017 for new requests for municipal bond CUSIPs. Despite this growth, municipal bond request volume was down 25% through the end of May 2017 on a year-over-year basis, reflecting some volatility in municipal bond issuance volumes over the course of this year.
“A combination of macroeconomic and technical variables have driven a fair amount of volatility in month-to-month CUSIP request volume so far this year,” said Gerard Faulkner, Director of Operations for CUSIP Global Services. “Overall uncertainty about where the markets and interest rates are going, and preparations for pending regulatory reforms such as the Fiduciary Rule have all conspired to create a choppy trend in pre-trade activity.”
International debt and equity CUSIP International Numbers (CINS) volume was mixed in May. International equity CINS increased 16% and international debt CINS decreased 1% during the month. On a year-over-year basis, international equity requests were down 9% and international debt requests were up 74%, reflecting continued volatility in international markets.
“In the big picture, we’re seeing very healthy levels of CUSIP request volume, indicative of robust new issuance activity,” said Richard Peterson, Senior Director, S&P Global Market Intelligence. “But the path we’ve been taking to get there has been bumpy with monthly surges in activity followed by slow-downs over the course of the year.”
To view a copy of the full CUSIP Issuance Trends report, please click here.