Rankings

California retained its top spot in total volume, but New York State dominated with deal size, with two deals in the top five and five in the top 10.

The top municipal bond underwriters have outperformed their 2018 first halves in both volume and transactions year over year.

The top muni bond counsel firms accounted for $74.79 billion in 1,783 transactions in the first quarter of 2019, up from $61.46 billion in 1,655 deals a year earlier. Although overall business was up, most of the top firms didn't quite achieve higher totals than they had during the same time last year.

PFM, Acacia and Piper move up in FA rankings, as deal volume handled by the top firms rose 18.6% from last year's depressed level to $64.32 billion.

Municipal bond insurers are running close to last year's clip through the first three months of 2019, as the two active insurers wrapped $3.61 billion in 288 transactions. That compares with $3.61 billion 257 deals during the same period last year. The insurance penetration rate dipped to 4.8% from 5.9% at the end of the first quarter of last year.

The top muni underwriters counsel rankings were all shaken up, as business spiked to $48.69 billion from $41.94 billion at this point last year.

California finds itself in a familiar spot, with the most muni issuance through the first three months of the year. The rest of the rankings show a mix of usual suspects and new faces.

Municipal underwriters jockey for position as business increased 21.9% from the first quarter of last year.

The region's 2018 new money bond sales were up 2% year-over-year, but refundings fell 57%.

The surge in gas deals couldn’t overcome the region’s sharp decline in refundings, which led to an overall 22.6% volume decline.