CUSIP Global Services (CGS) today announced the release of its CUSIP Issuance Trends Report for April 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 North American corporate and municipal debt identifiers in April.

CUSIP identifier requests for the broad category of U.S.- and Canada-issued equity and debt, increased 8.4% between March and April. The increase was driven by a 20.0% increase in requests for U.S. corporate debt identifiers and a 21.9% increase in requests for Canadian security identifiers. On a year-to-date basis, total volume for North American corporates was down 6.2%. 

Municipal CUSIP requests increased for the fourth straight month in April. The aggregate total of all municipal securities – including municipal bonds, long-term and short-term notes, and commercial paper – saw a 3.0% increase versus March 2019 and a 10.0% increase on a year-to-date.

"The combination of historical low interest rates with a relatively strong economy is supporting a steady volume of new security issuance activity by both corporate and municipal issuers," said Gerard Faulkner, Director of Operations for CUSIP Global Services. "We are still seeing a good amount of month-to-month volatility in our CUSIP indicator, however, which suggests that sentiment could shift quickly in response to geopolitical and economic trends."

Requests for new international debt and equity CUSIP International Numbers (CINS) both declined in April. International equity CINS were down 37.1%% versus the previous month, while international debt CINS decreased 9.7% during the same period.

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

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