Grant Street Group, the Pittsburgh-based company that pioneered internet auctions of bonds, announced today that its auction websites have exceeded $10 trillion in total volume, and hosted 100,000 auctions for 2,000 issuers. Since the first auction in November 1997, Grant Street Group has grown to become the world's largest auction house (by dollar volume). Though turbulence in the credit markets has caused great concern throughout the financial world, clients continue to receive strong interest in their offerings.
Grant Street Group successfully conducted large-scale bond and note issues throughout 2008, including a $100 million bond auction for Miami-Dade County, Florida to fund their "Building Better Communities" program and four bond auctions for Ocean County, New Jersey with a total value exceeding $100 million. The Ocean County auctions were held on the Public Financial Management (PFM) private label site, where the open auction format provided the County with savings of nearly $100,000. Grant Street Group has hosted the PFM private-label website for nearly 10 years.
Successful large-scale note auctions included a $977 million note auction for the City of Los Angeles and a $6.4 billion auction on the private label TRANTexas website. A total of 15 bidders submitted 82 bids in the TRANTexas auction, where the notes received the highest ratings from Standard and Poor's, Moody's Investors, and Fitch Incorporated.
Federal agency clients such as Freddie Mac and the Tennessee Valley Authority continue to raise funds using Grant Street Group's AgencyAuction™. As of this month, Freddie Mac has successfully auctioned over $3.5 trillion in bills and notes; Tennessee Valley Authority over $63 billion.
Online auctions of guaranteed investment contracts (GICs) were also a major contributor in helping Grant Street Group reach the $10 trillion milestone. Grant Street Group's GICauction™ website provides increased competition, transparency and unmatched record keeping capability. The IRS approved Grant Street Group's patented GIC auction process in September of 2007, and has issued proposed regulations stating that: "The Treasury Department and the IRS believe that electronic GIC bidding procedures generally offer the constructive potential for increasing the transparency of pricing of investments purchased with proceeds of tax-exempt bonds."
Certificate of Deposit (CD) auctions were yet another factor in reaching the $10 trillion volume mark. Ten State Treasurers currently use Grant Street Group private label websites to invest their operating funds in CDs to banks of their choice. These auctions allow the State to benefit from a competitive investment rate, with the added benefit of investing millions of dollars in local banks. After a recent CD auction, Ohio State Treasurer Cordray said, "BidOhio puts the state's money to work in communities around the state allowing safe and solid return on our investments."