The MuniESG Reader

A bi-weekly compendium of media articles covering a broad range of industry topics, all filtered through a MuniESG lens. November 7th edition now available.

Check out Bond Buyer's coverage of our new partnership with BondWave

This new partnership provides BondWave users with more detailed information for all municipal bond positions and transactions.

On August 15, the City of Clyde, TX, defaulted on the August 1 bond payments for its series 2013B and series 2022. The City blamed severe drought conditions affecting its water and sewer system operations as the cause for the default. We take a closer look at Clyde’s fiscal position and climate risk profile to see if their claim holds water.

The new product name reflects a growing focus on climate as a credit risk factor in municipal bond credit analysis.

Author Triet Nguyen contends that any implementation of legal entity identifiers for municipal issuers will have to satisfy a basic market need: the correct identification of obligors for every municipal transaction and their inter-relationships.

We address growing demand for data to support sustainable investing decisions by adding cutting-edge ESG scoring to our data service offerings. With the new MuniESG Solutions, users can now more accurately assess location-based risks from climate effects and other critical factors.

In his Forbes article on AI, data availability, and the muni bond market, Barnet Sherman highlights DPC DATA's expertise with muni data.

Managing editor Paul Greaves speaks with Triet Nguyen and reporter Kunal Kamal about evolving high yield municipal market risk factors.

May 22 Bond Buyer article quotes Triet Nguyen on climate risk and federal disaster aid.

This practical 1 ½ day workshop will engage government finance officers, regulators, accountants, lawyers, and underwriters in a dialogue about the challenges and opportunities for municipal bond issuers and investors in implementing the Financial Data Transparency Act (FDTA)

In a recent Bond Buyer article, Triet Nguyen talks about the risks with uncertainty in the property insurance space. “The needs are escalating…”

DPC’s Triet Nguyen and First Street’s Dr. Jeremy Porter were panelists for the NFMA Conference discussion, 'Severe Weather Events, Property Insurance and Municipal Credit.'

DPC DATA, which provides data and technology solutions for the municipal securities lifecycle, addresses growing demand for data to support sustainable investing decisions by adding cutting-edge ESG scoring to its data service offerings. Users, who range from issuers to institutional investors and market regulators, can now more accurately assess location-based risks from climate effects and other critical factors.

Bond Buyer senior reporter Caitlin Devitt covers DPC DATA’s recent webinar, The Property Insurance Crisis & Beyond: How Climate Risk Can Affect Municipal Credit Quality.

The current property insurance crisis in many states is a sign that climate change is starting to affect local property values.

Triet Nguyen’s latest article in the Fixed Income Insights winter edition explains the historical reasons for the municipal market’s apparent lack of concern about climate risk. It then explores how the current property insurance crisis in several states may dramatically shorten the climate risk horizon for municipal investors.

How Will the FDTA Impact Municipal Bond Investors? Find out Jan 17, 2024, 3pm ET

Triet Nguyen’s latest article in the fall issue of BDA’s Fixed Income Insights looks at the potential use cases for Chat-GPT in the fixed-income markets, while cutting through the current market hype.

Now available for on-demand viewing!
Charter school finance and data experts discuss market conditions, credit trends, and new data tools to analyze and monitor charter school credits.

A critical but seldom-used data element featured in MuniPOINTS has been getting attention lately and it’s all because of an obscure IRS tax rule. 

The Roseland, NJ-based company, which provides data and technology solutions for the municipal securities lifecycle, will tap Harrison’s financial management, fintech, and sales expertise to expand into new markets.

In a recent Bond Buyer article, Ken Hoffman and Triet Nguyen weigh in on artificial intelligence in the muni industry.

The Los Angeles water system, like other water utilities in the West and Southwest, can be subject to supply risk resulting from climate change. We look at the ESG challenges and financial position of this water utility.

In BDA's Fixed Income Insights Spring 2023 edition, Triet Nguyen raises some important considerations about credit ratings and ESG ratings and how to sidestep today's cultural and political 'ESG' minefields.

In this week’s case study, we look at how Health First navigated through the pandemic environment of the past 3 years.

We look at the financial and ESG trends facing Weld County Re-4 and spot some challenges for this oil and gas dependent entity.

Chicago’s upcoming Sales Tax Securitization Corporation (STCS) refunding package includes the City’s first Social Bond issue. We look at the STSC’s history, its credit fundamentals, and how the Social Bond offering is structured.

We're looking at this city in the Deep South, where residents tend to be more skeptical of climate change, and review its climate risk exposure. Spoiler alert: twisters are involved.

2022 was either a year to forget or a year to remember for a very long time, depending on your perspective. Triet Nguyen reviews the ups and downs of 2022 and looks ahead to 2023.

This state capital is a leader in sustainability efforts, but hides its light under a barrel. MuniESG scoring data illustrates what Madison officials could be disclosing to enhance the city’s reputation.

We look at the LA airport system to show how MuniCREDIT Online enables credit analysts to efficiently monitor debt service coverage ratios

While Atlanta is a fiscally well-managed city, see how MuniESG Solutions scores its climate and environmental risk. We also look at the City’s stance on social bonds

Tower Health is one of the many healthcare systems struggling financially. We use MuniCREDIT Online to delve into its numbers and point out key trends

Roseland, NJ-based DPC DATA, which provides data and technology solutions for the municipal securities lifecycle, addresses strong demand for coverage of key “high yield” municipal sectors by adding SIP’s Charter School sector financial and operating data to its MuniCREDIT Solutions.

This healthcare system’s recent bond offering was marred by the revelation of a cyber-attack. We offer some thoughts on how this impacts their ESG efforts

Texas A&M recently came to market with a new bond. Using MuniCREDIT Online, we examine the school’s recent credit trend and ESG disclosure.

The tax-exempt market has been slow to jump on the ESG bandwagon, as Triet Nguyen writes in his latest Bond Buyer article. He shares his views on what risks issuers and public finance professionals should focus on as they address ESG concerns.

San Diego USD has a strong financial profile and a carbon transition liability that can likely be accommodated by the district’s tax base and fiscal resources. However, its environmental risk scores are another story. We dive into the components of this score to uncover some surprises.

Manatee County is in excellent fiscal shape but can adopt a more robust stance on its environmental impact reporting. We break this down for you using MuniCREDIT Online and MuniESG tools.

Reviewing Charleston Waterworks & Sewer helps us illustrate a unique feature of MuniCREDIT Mapping: the distinction between enterprise fund and stand-alone entities, and how it may apply to capital structure mapping and ESG scoring.

Viewing the City of Chicago through MuniCREDIT Online and MuniESG lenses offers some useful insights into where the City is improving and where it’s still facing challenges.

Our proprietary MuniCREDIT Mapping methodology, a MuniCREDIT Solutions add-on, specifically identifies Dedicated Tax/Revenue issues across all major sectors. We show how you can use it to identify and review data on the exact pledged revenues, and more.

The County of Alameda, CA, has a financial profile that is in sharp contrast to its ESG risk levels. We break this scenario down for you using MuniCREDIT Online and MuniESG risk scoring.

The Not-For-Profit Healthcare sector was mentioned by Municipal Market Advisors and Citigroup as a sector to watch in the post-CARES Act environment. Let’s take a look via MuniCREDIT at one healthcare system that could be at risk of a major downgrade.

New product portfolio offers four+ years of comprehensive financial and operating data for 24,000+ Obligors in the municipal market.

Eau Claire County, WI, has already achieved its 2030 carbon emission reduction goal, almost eight years ahead of schedule. We took a closer look at the county’s ESG profile via MuniCREDIT Online.

The City of Cedar Park, TX is coming to market this week with a proposed $61 million General Obligation bond issue (Negotiated). Users of DPC DATA’s MuniCREDIT Online tool can quickly gauge this credit’s positives and negatives, both from a financial standpoint as well as from an ESG standpoint.

Northwest Senior Housing Corporation, known as Edgemere filed for Chapter 11 protection last week. MuniCREDIT Online tracked key financial ratios anticipating this turn of events.

We’re excited to be back in person May 17-20, as a sponsor for the National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA) Conference, at the Four Seasons Las Vegas.

The Bond Buyer's Lynne Funk covers DPC's new MuniESG Solutions in this March 18th article

We address growing demand for data to support sustainable investing decisions by adding cutting-edge ESG scoring to or data service offerings. With the new MuniESG Solutions, users can now more accurately assess location-based risks from climate effects and other critical factors.

In BDA's Fixed Income Insights Winter edition, Triet Nguyen discusses the possible ramifications to the municipal sector as investors start to take into account carbon transition risk.

This municipal data breakthrough gives market participants climate risk scoring for local governments and school districts. Developed by Spatial Risk Systems, a leading spatial finance firm.

Bond Buyer online demo showcased trailblazing innovations in municipal finance

November 18 webinar introduced DPC's new Financial & ESG data platform and the Spatial Risk Systems methodology for scoring climate risk.

Online event on Nov 18 presents new methodology from DPC DATA and Spatial Risk Systems to score climate risk at the individual Obligor level for local government, school districts.

Continuing disclosures continued to slide this month. COVID disclosures for material events again ticked upwards slightly, with ratings changes making up a larger share of disclosures compared to September.

Join DPC's Triet Nguyen and other industry experts for this insightful panel discussion on November 9, 2:30 to 3:30pm ET, at the BDA 2021 National Fixed Income Conference.

COVID disclosures for material events continued to tick upwards but remained below 2% in September. Continuing disclosures dropped 10% from their August high.

It is notable that while COVID-related Event Notices are steadily low, the August COVID-related Continuing Disclosures are at their highest percentage since the pandemic started.

This paper details risQ’s pilot analysis of the risk for municipalities associated with curbing carbon emissions from electricity production. Using DPC DATA’s county-level financial data enabled risQ to estimate potential carbon transition liability in actual dollar terms for selected municipalities.

July's trends in COVID-19 disclosures for material events and continuing disclosures.

BDA's Fixed Income Insights summer edition features Triet Nguyen's article on how the muni dealer community should approach Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) concerns.

DPC DATA's hand-coded COVID flags noted for offering an alternative to MSRB's automated text analysis.

June's infographic highlights trends in COVID-19 disclosures for material events and continuing disclosures. COVID tags are available in DPC's MuniPOINTS solution.

May's infographic highlights trends in COVID-19 disclosures for material events and continuing disclosures. The COVID tagging feature, available in DPC's MuniPOINTS solution, enables users to identify and screen for COVID disclosures at the individual CUSIP level with accuracy and confidence.

Ronak Patel and Triet Nguyen presented a virtual product showcase on DPC's new MuniCREDIT Mapping product at the 2021 NFMA Virtual Conference on May 12. Watch the video here.

Triet Nguyen, VP of Strategic Data Ops and Ronak Patel, VP of Product Management, presented a virtual product showcase on MuniCREDIT Financials at the 2021 NFMA Virtual Conference on May 13.

April's infographic highlights trends in COVID-19 disclosures for material events and continuing disclosures. The COVID tagging feature, available in DPC's MuniPOINTS solution, enables users to identify and screen for COVID disclosures at the individual CUSIP level with accuracy and confidence.

In a new monthly infographic, we will be looking at trends in COVID-19 disclosures for material events and continuing disclosures. We start here with a summary from the pandemic's 2020 inception to March 2021.

Sector exposure is a key driver of performance for relatively high-quality asset classes such as municipal bonds. DPC DATA’s new Sector Mapping methodology enables more refined sector classifications to reduce portfolio risk or capture more upside from rebounding sectors. This article illustrates how this methodology can be used in two different investment strategies.

DPC DATA's Triet Nguyen shares his views on key municipal market trends for 2021. If 2020 taught us anything, says Nguyen, it would be “expect the unexpected.”

Bond Buyer's Sarah Wynn recently spoke to DPC DATA's Triet Nguyen about the pandemic and the long-standing problems investors face when comparing securities and tracking down their revenue sources.

Company president Ken Hoffman talks about DPC DATA's history, its new Obligor mapping tool, and DPC's variety of services and products for Muni Bond Dealers on Bond Dealers of America's "Bonding Time" podcast.

VP of Strategic Data Operations Triet Nguyen discusses solving the muni market's credit data problem in BDA's Fixed Income Insights quarterly magazine.

DPC's Nguyen talks with Muni Lowdown hosts about disclosure in the muni market and the evolution towards better transparency.

Lynne Funk, Innovation Editor for The Bond Buyer, covered our Obligor and Sector Mapping in a September 23 article, "DPC DATA tool to map directly to underlying obligors of muni debt."

Triet Nguyen of DPC DATA, Inc. discusses the impact of future financial disclosures due to COVID-19.

A Continuing Disclosure Agent encourages its reporting schools to disclose effects of COVID-19 on charter school finances, operations and academics. These Material Event Notices are now easier to find on DPC DATA’s MuniPOINTS solution, thanks to the recently released COVID-19 flag.

The Bond Buyer's July 23 article highlights our new COVID-19 flag feature.

Enhancements to DPC DATA’s flagship MuniPOINTS product enable users to identify and screen for COVID-19 related disclosures at the individual CUSIP level with accuracy and confidence.

If you didn’t have the opportunity to join us for the July 8 Bond Buyer webinar, we’re sharing some key takeaways as well as the recording.

July 9, 2pm ET, Bond Buyer web seminar features DPC DATA's own Ken Hoffman (speaker) and Triet Nguyen (moderator).

Triet Nguyen visits with JR Rieger to talk about municipal bonds, the impact of COVID-19, and the critical need for disclosure transparency.

Before the municipal market was slammed by the coronavirus, the topic of municipal disclosure timeliness had once again reared its ugly head. Our analysis reveals that while timeliness improved from 2012 to 2018, 2019 was a different story. In the post-pandemic world, restoring reporting timeliness will be critical to regaining investor confidence.

DPC DATA recently published this email about coronavirus resources to help members of the muni sector stay informed.

DPC DATA takes a look at how the fundamental changes in Municipal Market structure drove the need for improved trade and credit data

DPC DATA has filled a niche in providing information, including: document management, best execution, data management and sector assignments for the industry.

Fidelity’s millions of customers now have instant access to all DPC DATA information affecting municipal bonds to help them be better informed as investors.

Timeliness of municipal disclosures has improved, with most sectors now filing 180 days after fiscal year-end.

The issue of municipal disclosure continues to be at the forefront of market discussions. A new study from DPC DATA shows the timeliness of municipal financial disclosure filings has in fact been improving, albeit to varying degrees depending on the sector.

The Roseland, NJ-based company, which provides disclosure information solutions for the municipal securities lifecycle, will tap Nguyen’s experience in municipal bond credit strategies and Carlin’s extensive industry relationships to help expand its product line.

MuniPOINTS® Enables Financial Advisors to Sell More Muni Bonds While Providing Appropriate Disclosure to Clients