Mark Conrad Dan Peters 23 August 2018

Crunch time for municipal bonds

The struggling Municipal Bonds Agency has pleaded for councils to ‘pull behind us’ amid warnings it could run out of money before issuing a bond.

The UK Municipal Bonds Agency (UKMBA) was given one of the highest possible credit ratings by global firm Moody’s back in March but - four years after it was launched - has struggled to get enough councils to be able to issue a bond.

It has incurred ‘significant expenses,’ with total pre-tax losses amounting to £2.7m over two years, according to the latest data available.

A financial statement filed in November 2017 claimed the UKMBA anticipated issuing its inaugural bond ‘in the near future’ but only 23 councils have gone through the necessary steps to be eligible and just four unnamed councils have signed up to borrow £50m.

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