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U.S. muni bond sales slump to $96.2 billion in first quarter

April 1, 2016 3:01 PM EDT

(Reuters) - U.S. states, cities, schools and other issuers sold $96.2 billion of debt in the first quarter, down 7.5 percent from the same quarter in 2015, according to Thomson Reuters data on Friday.

Citigroup was the top underwriter of municipal bonds, serving as bookrunner in 125 deals totaling $13.24 billion. Bank of America Merrill Lynch ranked second with 120 deals totaling $13 billion.

California, which sold $2.95 billion of debt during the quarter, was the top issuer, followed by the New York City Transitional Finance Authority with $1.9 billion of issuance.

The amount of insured munis fell 6.5 percent in the first three months of 2016 compared with the same period in 2015, according to the data. Of the $5.6 billion of insured bonds, Assured Guaranty Municipal backed $2.9 billion, while Build America Mutual covered $2.46 billion. Municipal Assurance Corp, an Assured Guaranty unit, insured nearly $135 million of bonds.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by Chris Reese and Dan Grebler)



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