S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies today announced the launch of powerful new analytics and data capabilities for investors in publicly-financed securities.
Financial Statement Data and S&P Indices® join RatingsDirect® Public Finance on S&P's Global Credit Portal® investor analytics platform. Together, these credit analysis tools allow market participants to gain in-depth insight into the creditworthiness of debt securities issued by state and local governments, government-owned facilities, public authorities and agencies.
"With state and local governments still feeling the strain of the weakened economy, investors need to scrutinize publicly-financed debt more carefully than ever," said Sonia Kim, Managing Director, S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies. "It is not enough just to look at a rating; investors need access to fast data that lets them compare a municipality's debt relative to its peers and market benchmarks. The S&P Global Credit Portal is the only source to deliver that level of analysis in a single package."
The new public finance offerings combine a wide range of S&P analytics and benchmark data in a single research platform. Following is an overview of the extensive public finance analysis offering now available on S&P's Global Credit Portal:
* CreditStats Direct Public Finance: Direct access to reported financial statement data for over 10,000 key public finance issuers, including Health Care, Municipal/County, States, and School Districts. The capability enables side-by-side financial statistics and ratios comparisons and exporting of financial data into proprietary analytic models, offering transparency into the ratings process and a huge time savings for Municipal analysts.
* S&P Indices: Gain additional perspective on the market factors influencing public finance with a series of S&P indices that measure the strength and performance of the residential real estate market, consumer credit default rates and municipal bonds. The indices provide benchmark comparisons of public finance portfolios against the S&P/Investortools Municipal Bond Indices; the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices; and ices; and the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices.
* RatingsDirect U.S. Public Finance: The full range of credit ratings, research and information from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services for over 1 million maturities nationwide, allowing detailed trend analysis, access to industry commentaries and ratings data and the creation of customized portfolios, with e-mail alerts to track issuers and maturities of interest.