Top banks tap investment-grade market

Ever so quietly, the investment-grade market has heated up. Financial News Online reports that the volume of domestic corporate investment-grade bond issuance in April was the second-highest monthly total ever, behind only May of last year. The really interesting things is that top banks are leading the charge. Goldman Sachs has raised $18 billion via these securities. JP Morgan Chase has raised $17 billion. And Merrill Lynch, $12 billion. It's unclear what the terms are, but the investment-grade environment has improved. The big winners from an underwriting perspective are JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup with 15 and 12 percent market shares respectively.  

For more:
- here's the Financial News Online article

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