Issuance volume
Asset-Backed Securities glossary · Asset Backed Securities
Definition
The dollar amount of new ABS bonds brought to market in a given period. US non-mortgage consumer-and-commercial ABS issuance typically runs in the low-to-mid hundreds of billions per year (auto, credit card, equipment, student loan, CMBS, esoterics combined), while agency MBS issuance is many multiples larger; the precise total varies materially with the rate cycle.
Issuance volume in plain English
Issuance volume is simply how many dollars of brand-new ABS bonds get created and sold to investors in a given stretch of time — a scoreboard for how busy the market is. 'ABS' means asset-backed securities: bonds funded by pools of everyday loans like car loans, credit-card balances, or student loans. For US non-mortgage consumer-and-business ABS, that new supply typically runs in the low-to-mid hundreds of billions of dollars a year, while mortgage-backed issuance is many times larger. The exact number moves a lot with interest rates: when borrowing gets expensive, fewer new loans are made, so fewer new bonds get issued.
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