Fixed-Income Issuance and Trading

Fixed-income instruments and markets are often categorized by issuer type, credit quality, time to maturity, and, sometimes, additional features, such as currency, geography, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) characteristics. Fixed-income indexes are categorized in a similar manner and serve important functions, like the role of equity market indexes in stock markets. Like other financial markets, fixed-income markets are composed of primary markets in which issuers raise financing from investors with new issues and secondary markets where investors trade existing instruments with other investors. Given bonds’ finite maturities and other features, there are important distinctions in fixed-income markets from the primary and secondary markets for equities.