Thomson Reuters’ Municipal Market Data has revised the criteria for its generic insured yield curves to include bonds guaranteed by Build America Mutual, reflecting the increasing institutional demand for BAM-insured bonds and providing municipal market participants with a more complete way to gauge the relative value of insured and uninsured municipal bonds.

“The MMD insured yield curve is an important, independent tool issuers, investors, and advisors use to monitor market conditions and estimate the value insurance adds to their transaction,” said Rick Holzinger, BAM’s Head of Investor Relations. “BAM guaranteed approximately 45% of all insured municipal bond transactions over the last year, so a large segment of the market will benefit from having access to a reference point that is relevant to their sales.”

MMD’s yield curves are anchored in observations of institutional block-sized trades in par amounts of $2 million or more. The insured curve is specifically designed to “reflect yields of general market paper with single-A underlying ratings, backed by the strongest trading credit enhancements,” according to MMD. Large-block trades of BAM-insured bonds have increased steadily since the company’s launch, and the trend has accelerated in the past 18 months in line with growth BAM’s average new- issue transaction size and increasing demand from institutional investors.

About Build America Mutual

BAM is a mutual bond insurance company operated for the benefit of its members – the cities, states and other municipal entities that use BAM’s financial guaranty to lower their cost of borrowing. BAM is sponsored by the National League of Cities.

Through March 31, 2017, BAM has insured more than $37 billion of municipal securities for more than 2,200 municipal issuers nationwide. Learn more at https://live-bambondscom.pantheonsite.io/about-bam/

For more information, please contact:

Michael Stanton, Head of Corporate Strategy and Communications 212-235-2575; mstanton@buildamerica.com