Disclosure in Bond Markets: The Art of Telling All (and Not Getting Sued)

If you’ve ever been to a dinner party where someone insists on chewing your ear off with their life story, you’ll know that too much information can be… well, a lot. In the bond markets, however, oversharing isn’t just polite – it’s the law.

This article looks at disclosure obligations for issuers of debt securities – which basically means what companies must tell investors before and after they borrow money, why it matters, and what happens if they “forget” to mention something important. Disclosure rules sit alongside covenants: covenants control how the issuer behaves during the life of a bond, while disclosure controls the information investors receive when bonds are issued and traded.