February CUSIP Request Volume for Corporates and Municipals Increases

CUSIP Global Services(CGS) announced the release of its CUSIP Issuance Trends Report forFebruary 2019. 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 noteworthy increase in requests for new corporate and municipal debt identifiers, while requests for international security identifiers declined in February.

CUSIP identifier requests for the broad category of U.S.- andCanada-issued equity and debt, increased 2.5% between January and February. The growth was driven by a 6.7% increase in requests for U.S. corporate debt identifiers and a 57.8% increase in request for Canadian security identifiers. On a year-over-year basis, total volume for North American corporates was down 5.3%, reflecting slow issuance volume in January.

Municipal CUSIP requests also increased in February. The aggregate total of all municipal securities – including municipal bonds, long-term and short-term notes, and commercial paper – saw a 16.7% increase versusJanuary 2019and a 19.1% increase on a year-over-year basis.

“It should come as little surprise that issuers of corporate and municipal debt are continuing to seize the opportunity presented by the current low interest rate environment to raise new capital,” saidGerard Faulkner, Director of Operations for CUSIP Global Services. “While volumes have been relatively strong so far this year, we do expect continued volatility as interest rates start to rise and geopolitical uncertainty persists.”

Requests for new international debt and equity CUSIP International Numbers (CINS) were mixed in February. International equity CINS were down 44.4% versus the previous month, while international debt CINS increased 3.4% during the same period.

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

Following is a breakdown of New CUSIP Identifier requests by asset class year-to-date, throughFebruary 2019: