Research · Market pulse
Who holds industrial revenue bonds — and how that is changing
A quarterly read of demand for conduit and industrial-type municipal bonds: registered fund holdings, bank balance sheets, the issuers gaining and losing ground, and where in the country the money sits.
Key takeaways
- Fund holdings of $107.3B in conduit revenue bonds, +5.7% on the quarter and +8.3% on the year. The series includes transportation, nonprofit and housing conduits as well as industrial bonds, and filer coverage changed in earlier quarters, so longer comparisons overstate growth.
- Banks hold $284.9B of municipal securities (all types, held as securities), -0.2% on the quarter and +0.7% over five quarters. Direct-purchase bonds are often booked as loans and are not in this figure.
- Largest gain this quarter: Public Finance Authority (Wisconsin; issues nationwide), up $2.0B; largest decline: Mobile County Al Industrial Development Authority Solid Waste Disposal, −$98.7M.
- Concentration: the fifteen largest issuers hold 69% of fund-held conduit bonds; Massachusetts leads among states with $7.6B.
Fund demand
Registered funds — high-yield municipal funds above all — are the core buyers of unrated industrial bonds. In our view their holdings of conduit paper are the most useful public gauge of appetite for new placements.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Fund families with filings in both quarters | 191 |
| Par added | $2.1B |
| Par cut | $1.7B |
| Net | $435.6M |
| Net buyers / net sellers | 97 / 92 |
| New positions opened | 499 |
| Positions exited | 416 |
Bank demand
Banks buy small industrial issues directly and provide the letters of credit behind variable-rate bonds. Because private activity bonds cannot be bank-qualified, banks lose the interest-expense deduction allocable to them (§265(b)), so direct-purchase rates are typically set as a fraction of taxable rates. The figure below is municipal securities on Schedule RC-B; bonds held as loans appear on Schedule RC-C and are not included.
Issuers on the move
| Issuer | State | Change | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Finance Authority (Wisconsin; issues nationwide) | WI | +$2.0B | $15.4B |
| Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority | PA | +$574.1M | $4.6B |
| Arizona Industrial Development Authority | AZ | +$380.4M | $2.7B |
| Arkansas Development Finance Authority | AR | +$303.2M | $1.6B |
| Florida Development Finance Corp | FL | +$283.9M | $4.3B |
| Miami-Dade County Industrial Development Authority | FL | +$212.8M | $310.8M |
| California Public Finance Authority | CA | +$208.3M | $997.2M |
| Kansas Development Finance Authority | KS | +$190.5M | $598.8M |
| Issuer | State | Change | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile County Al Industrial Development Authority Solid Waste Disposal | — | −$98.7M | $104.9M |
| Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development | PA | −$97.9M | $1.4B |
| Loudoun County Economic Development Authority | — | −$86.5M | $194.2M |
| Massachusetts Development Finance Agency | MA | −$66.6M | $6.8B |
| California Infrastructure & Economic Development Bank | CA | −$62.8M | $2.9B |
| State of Nevada Department of Business & Industry | NV | −$52.1M | $219.7M |
| Roanoke Economic Development Authority | — | −$45.1M | $73.2M |
| Mobile Al Industrial Development Brd Pollution County | — | −$41.2M | $37.6M |
| # | Issuer | State | Held | Funds | 4 quarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Public Finance Authority (Wisconsin; issues nationwide) | WI | $15.4B | 252 | +$5.3B |
| 2 | Massachusetts Development Finance Agency | MA | $6.8B | 199 | +$1.1B |
| 3 | New Jersey Economic Development Authority | NJ | $4.7B | 192 | −$540.9M |
| 4 | Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority | PA | $4.6B | 190 | +$613.7M |
| 5 | Florida Development Finance Corp | FL | $4.3B | 93 | −$896.1M |
| 6 | South Carolina Jobs-Economic Development Authority | SC | $3.1B | 146 | +$120.3M |
| 7 | California Infrastructure & Economic Development Bank | CA | $2.9B | 154 | −$833.1M |
| 8 | Arizona Industrial Development Authority | AZ | $2.7B | 144 | +$862.6M |
| 9 | Arkansas Development Finance Authority | AR | $1.6B | 88 | +$388.6M |
| 10 | Maricopa County Industrial Development Authority | AZ | $1.6B | 144 | +$165.7M |
| 11 | Texas Private Activity Bond Surface Transportation Corp | TX | $1.5B | 76 | −$84.1M |
| 12 | Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development | PA | $1.4B | 117 | −$276.5M |
| 13 | Oklahoma Development Finance Authority | OK | $1.2B | 95 | −$15.7M |
| 14 | Maryland Economic Development Corp | MD | $1.1B | 90 | −$261.1M |
| 15 | California Pollution Control Financing Authority | CA | $1.0B | 73 | −$343K |
Where the money sits
| State | Held by funds | Quarter change | Issuers | Bank munis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | $7.6B | +$1.1B | 167 | $2.6B |
| California | $6.7B | −$755.6M | 247 | $7.5B |
| Wisconsin | $6.7B | +$1.9B | 305 | $6.3B |
| Pennsylvania | $6.2B | +$651.5M | 250 | $6.8B |
| Florida | $5.6B | −$1.4B | 232 | $3.3B |
| New Jersey | $5.5B | −$743.7M | 206 | $2.2B |
| Arizona | $4.3B | +$322.0M | 337 | $2.4B |
| South Carolina | $3.8B | +$297.3M | 169 | $1.8B |
| Texas | $2.2B | −$188.6M | 79 | $25.5B |
| Arkansas | $2.1B | +$103.2M | 87 | $11.6B |
| Maryland | $1.8B | −$388.6M | 134 | $461.3M |
| Kansas | $1.4B | +$43.9M | 87 | $5.3B |
| Oklahoma | $1.4B | +$3.3M | 70 | $5.1B |
| New York | $1.4B | +$29.0M | 119 | $7.2B |
| Ohio | $1.3B | −$142.1M | 55 | $44.4B |
All conduit issuers Who buys the bonds
Methodology
Positions reported by registered investment companies on Form N-PORT are matched to issuers and classified by Securitief as conduit or industrial-type municipal bonds; quarterly figures sum the latest filing in each quarter. Bank figures are municipal securities reported by FDIC-insured institutions in call reports. Figures are revised as late filings arrive.
Important information. Securitief Research is published by Securitief, operated by Applied America. Securitief is not a placement agent or underwriter and does not seek or receive compensation from any financing, including financings of issuers and borrowers discussed here. It is not acting as a municipal advisor and owes no fiduciary duty to any issuer or obligated person unless separately engaged in writing.
This material is general information. It is not tax, legal, investment or municipal advice, a recommendation, or an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Offers are made only by offering documents and only where permitted by state securities laws. State allocation procedures change; confirm current rules with the allocating agency and bond counsel.
Sources: SEC Form N-PORT and FDIC call reports (holdings), IRS and Census (volume cap and population), state agency publications. Issuer classification and aggregation are Securitief’s own and may contain matching errors; figures may be revised. No licensed index levels (MMD, BVAL, ICE) or EMMA trade data are used. Past holdings do not indicate future demand, pricing or the availability of financing. Interest on private activity bonds may be subject to the alternative minimum tax; tax treatment depends on the facts and the opinion of bond counsel.
Cite this page: Securitief Research, “IRB market pulse,” October 2026, https://securitief.com/pulse.