CUSIP Global Services (CGS) announced the release of its CUSIP Issuance Trends Report for August 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 increases in CUSIP request volume across most major asset classes in August.
CUSIP identifier requests for the broad category of U.S.- and Canada-issued equity and debt increased 9.1% in August. The growth was driven by a 6.8% increase in requests for domestic corporate equity identifiers and a 27.9% increase in domestic corporate debt identifiers. On a year-to-date basis, total volume for North American corporates was down 3.9% through the end of August. Municipal CUSIP requests also increased in August.
The aggregate total of all municipal securities – including municipal bonds, long-term and short-term notes, and commercial paper – saw a 9.2% increase versus July 2019. On a year-to-date basis, municipal request volume is up 10.0% through August.
“While CUSIP request volume has shown some month-to-month volatility across all asset classes so far this year, we’re still seeing a level of pre-market activity consistent with strong issuance volumes,” said Gerard Faulkner, Director of Operations for CUSIP Global Services. “Historically low interest rates are clearly playing some role in this, but global economic volatility is also a factor.”
Requests for new international debt and equity CUSIP International Numbers (CINS) were mixed in August. International equity CUSIP requests were up 12.7% from July to August 2019 and international debt CUSIP requests fell 17.3% during the month. Year-to-date international CUSIP request volume for all international securities is down 31.0% so far in 2019.
To view the full CUSIP Issuance Trends report for August, please click here.
