Municipal Securities



Underwriting Essential Needs

Communities have basic needs, and Morgan Stanley Municipal Finance is there to help them fund these essentials. Morgan Stanley underwrites financings for state and local governments, and other municipal and not-for-profit issuers including health care, higher education, housing, public power, student loans, airports, and surface transportation, among others.

These public debt offerings help to pay for new highways, hospitals, schools, water and sewer systems, museums, mortgages for first-time homebuyers, student loans and environmental improvements. Many financings help state and local governments develop the infrastructure to support jobs. With government budgets increasingly stressed, finding efficient and creative financing is especially important to minimize the burden on taxpayers.

In the volatile market conditions since the 2008 credit crisis, Morgan Stanley’s creativity and expertise have made it one of the top four national municipal underwriters. Morgan Stanley has led the negotiated sale of more than 750 financings with $130 billion in aggregate par amount since 2008. Since entering the public finance market in 1982, Morgan Stanley has taken part in underwriting nearly $2 trillion of securities in more than 22,000 transactions.

In addition to being an active underwriter of new issues, we are also an active dealer and market-maker in the secondary market for tax-exempt and taxable municipal securities, creating opportunities for institutions and individuals to invest in municipal bond projects. Morgan Stanley provides liquidity and actively trades with thousands of retail and institutional municipal bond investors—in 2010, completing more than $100 billion worth of secondary market municipal bond trades. Morgan Stanley also provides extensive research to help investors understand the various credit structures of municipal bond issuers.