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The two active bond insurers combined for a total of $18.28 billion of insured par in the first half of 2021 in 1,127 deals, up from the $13.92 billion in 979 transactions in the first half of last year.
The municipal bond industry continued the strong run it has been on since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and now has the highest insured rate in the past decade to show for it. The first-half 2021 par insured nears the full-year totals pre-COVID. In 2019, the total par insured was $23.927 billion.
Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. and Build America Mutual insure 8.4% of the market, the highest it has been since it was 8.64% at the end of 2009. The first-half insured par is up 31% year-over-year compared to the overall market volume growth of 15%. The number of insured transactions is up 88%, while the total transaction count in the muni market increased by 19%.