NEW YORK, May 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CUSIP Global Services (CGS) today announced the release of its CUSIP Issuance Trends Report for April 2013.  The report, which tracks the issuance of new security identifiers as an early indicator of debt and capital markets activity, suggests increasing volume in US corporate and municipal bond issuance over the next 30-90 days. 

CUSIP requests for new US corporate equity and debt issues surged 12% from the previous month, with 3,961 new CUSIP IDs requested in April.  This was the second-highest monthly volume of CUSIP ID requests since May of 2012, bringing the total annual volume of corporate CUSIP request volume up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Municipal CUSIP requests also jumped ahead in April, with 1,356 new ID requests made during the month.  This was the best monthly showing of the year and the strongest showing of muni volume since November 2012.  On a year-over-year basis, requests for new muni bond CUSIP IDs are still down 13.8% over 2012 totals, reflecting a significant slowdown in volume over the first quarter of 2013.

Internationally, debt and equity CUSIP requests have slowed again after several months of see-sawing growth.  International equity CUSIP requests fell 9% in April, while international debt identifier requests slipped 2.9% during the month.  On an annualized basis, international equity CUSIP requests are down 2.9% so far in 2013 while international debt CUSIP requests are up by over 45.5%.

"After a couple of months of uncertainty, it is now clear that U.S. market participants plan to continue to take full advantage of the low interest rate environment to issue debt at a rapid pace into Q2 and Q3," said Richard Peterson, Director, Global Markets Intelligence, S&P Capital IQ.  "Reciprocally, we continue to see evidence of a sputtering recovery in Europe, with monthly ebbs and flows in identifier request that seem to suggest a continued sense of uncertainty among institutions operating in the region."

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

To view a video commentary of this month's CUSIP Issuance Trends with Richard Peterson, please click here.

Following is a breakdown of new CUSIP identifier requests by asset class year-to-date through April 2013:

The CUSIP Global Services trends report is issued to the marketplace on a monthly basis.   For more information, please visit www.cusip.com. 

About CUSIP Global Services
For 40 years CUSIP Global Services has provided a unique common language for identifying financial instruments across institutions, exchanges and nations, enabling financial services firms to benefit from improved operating efficiencies and substantially reduced administrative costs. CUSIP Global Services is operated by the CUSIP Service Bureau (CSB). CSB is managed on behalf of the American Bankers Association by S&P Capital IQ. For more information, visit www.cusip.com.

About The American Bankers Association
The American Bankers Association represents banks of all sizes and charters and is the voice for the nation's $13 trillion banking industry and its 2 million employees.  Learn more at www.aba.com.

¹ "International" Debt refers to market requests for CUSIP International Numbers ("CINS") for non-U.S. debt offerings
²  "International" Equity refers to market requests for CUSIP International Numbers ("CINS") for non-U.S. equity offerings

SOURCE CUSIP Global Services