Investment and Debt Management

Credit Agency Ratings

The City remains focused on being a welcoming, inclusive, diverse, innovative, and equitable City that ensures a high quality of life for all, moving toward the goal of becoming "One City" with a Triple-A (AAA) bond rating. The City has maintained strong credit ratings in recent years:

• Moody's 'Aa1' (Outlook Stable)

• Fitch Ratings 'AA+' (Outlook Stable)

• Standard & Poor's 'AA+' (Outlook Positive)

Existing Debt

General Obligation Bonds 

As of June 30th, 2023, the City has $775,214,016 of long-term General Obligation (“GO”) Bonds outstanding spread among 21 different bond series ranging in date from 2010B to 2022A. These GO bonds carry the full faith and credit of the City of Richmond and are repaid from several different Funds within the City. Each Series of GO bonds have been issued for 15-25 year repayment periods to finance various capital projects.   

Line of Credit Bond Anticipation Notes 

At the end of fiscal year 2023, the City had two Line of Credit (LOC) Bond Anticipation Notes outstanding. The 2022A LOC was established to provide funding for ongoing Richmond Public Schools projects, City Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)  projects, and Stormwater Utility projects. As of June 30th, 2023, the 2022A LOC has $49.9M in debt outstanding. Additionally, the City established the 2022B LOC to finance the planning and designing phases of future City capital projects. As of June 30th, 2023, the outstanding principal balance was $2.6M. The City anticipates refinancing this debt into a long-term general obligation bond in the near future.

Public Utility Revenue Bonds   

The City has issued 11 series of Public Utility Revenue Bonds to finance ongoing capital projects of its Gas, Water and Wastewater Utility Enterprise Funds. As of June 30th, 2023, the outstanding balance of these Public Utility Revenue Bonds is $776,022,946. 

Independent Municipal Advisor Exemption

By publicly posting the following written disclosure, the City of Richmond, Virginia intends that market participants receive and use it for purposes of the independent registered municipal advisor exemption to the SEC Municipal Advisor Rule.

The city of Richmond, Virginia has retained an independent registered municipal advisor. The City of Richmond, Virginia is represented by and will rely on its municipal advisor, Davenport & Company LLC, to provide advice on proposals from financial services firms concerning the issuance of municipal securities and municipal financial products (including investments of bond proceeds and escrow investments (if applicable). This certificate may be relied upon until October 19, 2024.

Proposals may be addressed to:

City of Richmond
Attn: Procurement
900 E. Broad St.
Richmond, VA 23219

If the proposal received will be seriously considered by the city of Richmond, Virginia, the city will share the document with its municipal advisor. Please note that aside from regulatory-mandated correspondence between an underwriter and municipal advisor, the underwriter should not share or discuss proposals with the municipal advisor unless they already have been provided to the city of Richmond, Virginia.

Additional Information 

The City of Richmond posts information regarding debt issuance, official statements, disclosures, and more to our MSRB Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) Page.

To learn more about the fiscal health of the City of Richmond, please visit our Reports Page where you can find Audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports, Unaudited Monthly Reports, and more.

If you would like to know more about Richmond's future financial plans, please see the Department of Budget and Strategic Planning's Annual Budget Documents Page where you can find Approved Budgets as well as 5-Year Capital Improvement Plans.