The companies or public authorities that find it more profitable to take a loan on the capital market than to get a banking loan go public with bonds which can be freely traded on the market later on.

The bonds confer their holder the right to receive a cash flow clearly defined upon their issuance or indexed according to certain parameters (generally of the monetary market). This cash flow is made up of a principal (the amount lent by the holder to the issuer) and the interest. Depending on the issuer's needs (or on the potential customers' needs identified by the issuer, in case their enthusiasm requires incentives), the amounts and time of repayment to the investors differ significantly from one issuance to another.

Some bonds only pay interest (on a quarterly or half-yearly basis, depending on the specifications of the issuance prospectus) until maturity when, along with the last interest payment, they also return the entire principal. Other bonds pay parts of the principal, as well, upon certain intervals (which are also clearly indicated in the issuance prospectus). In general, the investor may lose or win because of the differences between the value of the coupon (the interest paid by the issuer) and the value of the interests prevailing on the market at the time, between such interest and the market price of the bond there being a reversed relationship.

For the time being, on the domestic market, due to the fact that the offer was significantly inferior to the demand, and that, for most issuances, the prospectus specifies that the value of the coupon is indexed according to the interest rates prevailing on the market, this relationship does not work properly, but this does not mean that investors should pay less attention to the interest rate risk.

Although, in theory, the cash flow received by a bond holder is not influenced by the issuer's incomes, it is obvious that if such incomes are too small, the payments made to investors will be delayed or they may cease. This is why the issuance prospectus must be read, as well, from the point of view of the guarantees provided by the issuer (which may vary from a significant share of its assets to a simple guarantee consisting in the issuer's good reputation).