ICE Data Services has launched the ICE US Broad Municipal Index, which expands its coverage of investment-grade municipal securities, Intercontinental Exchange Inc. announced Wednesday.
The ICE US Broad Municipal Index (ticker: MUNI) tracks the performance of more than 58,000 investment-grade tax-exempt municipal bonds representing more than $1.6 trillion in total market capitalization.
ICE said the new index will track three times the number of bonds currently followed by its investment grade tax-exempt municipal indices, a 60% increase in the market capitalization now tracked.
“Our U.S. municipal bond indices have history extending back for over 30 years, starting with the launch of what is currently named the ICE BofAML US Municipal Securities Index (ticker: U0A0) in the late 1980s,” said Phil Galdi, ICE’s head of indices.
The MUNI index expands on the coverage of the U0A0 index with two changes. The MUNI index will keep securities tracked until they mature, while the U0A0 index removes them once they are less than one year to maturity. The MUNI index will also have lower size filters on the amount outstanding.
“We are excited to launch this new index which, when combined with the existing municipal bond indices we already offer, will give investors the flexibility to find a benchmark that best matches their diversity, liquidity and risk-management needs,” Galdi said.
The indices are part of other municipal offerings across the company, which include ICE Data Services' municipal bond evaluations and reference data for more than one million bonds and the municipal bond liquidity and execution protocols offered by ICE TMC Bonds and BondPoint.
Intercontinental Exchange is a Fortune 500 company founded in 2000 and operates financial exchanges, clearing houses and information services. It is the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange and has total assets of about $93 billion as of 2018.
