The Impact of Municipal Bond Banking on Municipal Interest Costs
评估了美国新英格兰地区市政债券银行（一种准州级信用机构）如何通过将小规模地方债务合并发行来降低参与地方政府的借款成本，对研究地方政府融资创新的学者有参考价值。
A municipal bond bank (MBB) is a quasi-state municipal credit institution that developed in several New England states in the early 1970s for the express purpose of lowering the borrowing costs of participants by pooling small local debt issues into a larger bond issue to be sold in the larger regional or national market. Municipal bond banks have a debt reserve fund typically equal to the maximum amount of principal and interest due in any succeeding year which may be used to meet tardy or defaulted debt service payments. In addition, it is common for bond banks to have as backup security the moral obligation of the state legislature. For small, relatively unknown tax-exempt borrowers facing problems of high interest rates and marketing costs, the municipal bond bank is an alternative to go-it-alone financing. It operates as an intermediary between the capital market and the local government. Typically, a municipal bond bank issues revenue bonds in its own name, uses the proceeds to purchase bonds (mostly general obligation) of participating local governments, and passes debt service costs through to its participants. This article evaluates the impact of state municipal bond banking on the interest costs of participating local governments. State credit assistance, such as tha available through bond banks, is used to help local governments lower borrowing costs and perhaps to make funds available where previously unavailable. Credit assistance offered by bond banks typically involves the pooling of small local debt issues into a larger, highly rated bond designed to provide access to a national market. In addition to the pooling effects, economies of scale associated with the size of a municipal bond bank offering may be exploited.