Bond insurance

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.

Municipal bond insurance may have finished 2018 down 18.1% from where it was the year before, but it outpaced the 23.5% volume dip the overall industry saw due to changes in tax legislation.

The latest reversal of Puerto Rico's Title III bankruptcy court again draws attention to PROMESA's failure to meet its goals of restoring fiscal responsibility and capital market access for Puerto Rico.

While the municipal bond insurers suffered from the curtailment of issuance under newly effective U.S. tax laws, the insurance penetration rate ticked higher.

Puerto Rico’s per capita debt load is far lower than that of the mainland U.S. states.

Larson joins the bond insurer after 35 years in the muni industry, including 20 years at Goldman Sachs.

Municipal bond pros say the industry has adapted to an insurance industry one-tenth its former size. Part 3 of The Bond Buyer's series on the decade after the financial crisis.

The tax overhaul and rising rates started to bolster demand, partly offsetting the decline in issuance.

What began as trouble in the housing and mortgage markets shook the whole world in 2008, including a municipal bond industry that had to learn to live without bond insurance, auction-rate debt and some big investment banks.

Build America Mutual announced a new program to identify green bonds sold by U.S. municipal bond issuers for infrastructure projects that provide clear environmental benefits.