Mergent Municipal Bond Securities Data

The Mergent Municipal Bond Securities database provides information on U.S. domestic municipal bonds beginning in 1996. It covers municipal issues from all 50 states including bonds issued by states, counties, and cities as well as other municipal entities such as hospitals, community colleges, schools, water districts, and other similar entities. Data is at issue level for all individual bonds including the underwriter, bond yield, offering price, offering date, maturity, and other bond characteristics (e.g., taxable, security, use of proceeds, sale type, refunding). It also includes information on credit ratings at issuance and throughout the life of the bond from S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch. Each bond has a maturity_id and issue_id that allows for matching across tables within the Mergent dataset. The full 9-digit CUSIP for each bond is also provided. There is some coverage for geographic areas outside of the 50 states (e.g., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands). It also includes some bonds issued prior to 1996, and some debt instruments other than public bonds (e.g., collateralized notes, certificates of obligation, construction loan notes). However, the extent of coverage for these additional geographic areas, offering dates, and debt instruments is unknown, suggesting that researchers exercise caution before using these data. Data is current to December 2024.