BondLink, a Boston-based municipal finance technology provider, has launched several enhancements for investor communications, treasury management and disclosure compliance.
They complement the firm’s turnkey, cloud-based investor-relations website, co-founder and chief executive Colin MacNaught said Tuesday.
“Governments of all sizes rely on the bond market to fund their infrastructure needs,” said MacNaught, who issued more than $25 billion in bonds and notes while Massachusetts assistant treasurer for debt management from 2008 to 2015.
“Yet most governments don’t engage investors like corporate issuers do. We’re changing that by providing technology to enable issuers to grow their investor base through both transparency and easier access to more current data.”
According to MacNaught, BondLink’s platform empowers issuers to operate more efficiently, both internally and externally, while making investors’ credit surveillance and analysis easier and more productive.
Market regulators support enhanced disclosure as do issuer and investor trade associations, said MacNaught. He said academic research shows that more accessible disclosure can lower costs for issuers.
BondLink’s latest cloud-based enhancements include digital investor roadshows; a drag-and-drop upload to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s Emma website; and debt-management services, including an investor database with analytics, a central document repository with unlimited storage, and document sharing and editing capabilities for finance teams.
Since co-founders MacNaught and Carl Query launched BondLink’s first investor platform in 2016, BondLink has expanded to serve clients in 20 states across the $4 trillion municipal bond market plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Clients include California, Chicago and the University of Texas.
In In January 2018, BondLink completed a $10 million Series A financing led by Franklin Templeton.
Last month it hired
“BondLink's tools can enhance issuers' efficiency and effectiveness in getting information to their investors and potential investors,” said Daniel Bergstresser, associate professor of finance at Brandeis International Business School. “I believe that this enhanced transparency can broaden and diversify the investor base for municipal debt and can benefit both issuers and investors.”
One of BondLink’s initial clients, Washington, D.C., went live in November 2016.
“I'm always excited to see the new products they roll out,” said the city’s senior financial policy advisor Darryl Street, who has worked with BondLink’s product teams.
Tuesday’s release follows BondLink’s municipal finance leadership summit in Boston, which focused on investor outreach best practices.
