These are debt instruments issued by corporate or public sector undertakings. A bond / debenture is a debt obligation; where the bond / debenture holder is a lender to the issuer and there is no ownership position. A bond is a promise in which the Issuer agrees to pay a certain rate of interest, usually as a percentage of the bond's face value to the Investor at specific periodicity over the life of the bond. Sometimes interest is also paid in the form of issuing the instrument at a discount to face value and subsequently redeeming it at par. Some bonds do not pay a fixed rate of interest but pay interest that is a mark-up on some benchmark rate.