A lot more municipal bonds are coming to market this year than last, judging by the latest quarterly figures on requests for new CUSIP numbers gathered by S&P Capital IQ. CUSIP stands for the Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures, which issues nine character codes used to identify stocks and bonds.
Municipal bond CUSIP orders jumped by 51% in the first quarter of 2015 to 3,689 requests from 2,446 in the same period in 2014.
In March alone, there were 1,438 request — the most monthly orders since May 2013 when 1,569 CUSIPs were ordered.
“It’s a positive indicator for the public finance arena,” says Richard Peterson, senior director at S&P Capital IQ.
Last year was a down year in overall CUSIP requests for munis. In 2014 there were 12,749 orders down from 13,152 in 2013. If 2015 stays at its current pace, it would easily top that number.
Texas had the most orders for municipal debt CUSIPs, with 460 in the first quarter. That was a 44% increase from 321 orders in 2014.
Barron’s
By Amey Stone
April 17, 2015