Public finance

Long-term municipal bond sales dropped for the second straight year, but a late year surge of issuance nearly brought volume level with the prior year and raised hopes for a rebound in 2024.

All municipal bond insurers wrapped $35.381 billion in 2023, a 5.8% increase from the $33.428 billion insured in 2022, according to LSEG data.

Bond volume fell slightly, as volatility, higher interest rates, falling pandemic aid and slower economic growth kept issuers on the sidelines.

Issuance has fluctuated throughout the years since the financial crisis, following interest rate changes — rising when rates rise and falling when rates fall — but the totals have come in well below $15 billion every year since 2012, save for 2017 when $15.234 billion was sold.

"Tight underwriting spreads in 2023 followed, for the most part, a well-entrenched trajectory that has backdropped the primary municipal market for years, and so the negligible bump in spreads does not come as a surprise," said Jeff Lipton, managing director of credit research at Oppenheimer.

Texas bond volume climbed 22.5% to lead the nation in a year when issuance in the eight-state Southwest region increased by only 0.6%.

According to FINRA, the banking giant failed to close out 239 inter-dealer transactions in a timely manner as well as failing to take possession of 247 short positions.

"With supply still low, and fund outflows just marginal, it is not clear what would substantially cheapen the market, and we could get stuck in the current range for some time time," Barclays strategists said.

Austin Transit Partnership, which was created by the city and its mass transit agency to develop and finance Project Connect, approved an initial bond sale of up to $150 million.

Western Alliance Bank has named Woo senior director of treasury management in the bank's corporate finance and public and nonprofit finance groups.

Expanded domestic purchasing requirements under the infrastructure law are well-intended but confusing and costly, state transportation and construction groups say.

Comments submitted to the SEC on the MSRB's amendments to Rule G-14 note how important exceptions for manual trades and limited trading activity are in the move to a one-minute reporting standard.

Meanwhile in New York, the state doubles down on climate investments and restricts investments in some big oil and gas companies as the city blasts several big banks as they pull out from the Climate Action 100+ initiative.

Moody's Investors Service placed the university under review for downgrade, citing in part debt that would be issued to purchase the University of Phoenix.

This decision will accelerate foreign buyers' reduced presence in the muni market, said Vikram Rai, head of municipal markets strategy at Wells Fargo.

Photos from The Bond Buyer's annual National Outlook Conference.

The proposed $1 billion bond measure would fund port improvements needed to push the state's nascent offshore wind power industry forward.

Municipal bond mutual funds saw the second week of outflows, with LSEG Lipper reporting $142.2 million of outflows for the week ending Wednesday. High-yield funds saw inflows.

Fitch said its upgrade "reflects the removal of the asymmetric additional risk relating to potential general fund exposure to the county's enterprise sewer system … which reflects the system's recent restructuring of its outstanding debt."

David Brownstein, who helped Jefferson County, Alabama, and Detroit return to market after bankruptcy, has opened a new firm that is advising the Oversight Board on its plan of adjustment for PREPA.