This overview is a guide to the Banking & Finance content within the Types of debt securities subtopic, with links to relevant materials.
In the context of debt capital markets (see Practice Note: Key features of the debt capital markets), the term 'debt security' generally means a financial instrument, negotiable on the capital markets, which represents a debt obligation.
The debt capital markets are generally used by corporates, governments and multi-lateral agencies to raise finance from an investor base consisting mainly of investment funds, pension funds, insurance companies and other so-called institutional investors (also known as professional investors) but sometimes also individuals (retail investors) (see Practice Note: Parties in an issue of debt securities).
The main categories of debt securities are:
bonds (also known as notes)
medium-term notes (MTNs) or euro medium term notes (EMTNs), and
commercial paper (CP)
Most debt securities share a number of key characteristics, specifically:
they are transferable instruments
they bear interest or are issued at a discount to their face value
they
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