ABSTRACT
The Republic of the Philippines currently does not have a bond market per se. One manifestation of this is that there are no bonds listed or traded on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). The Philippines has had a fairly advanced financial system for many years. The Manila Stock Exchange (MSE) was established as early as 1927, and with the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1936, the country was one of the first East Asian countries to have a regulatory body for securities. Philippine law stipulates that only two types of organizations other than the central bank can underwrite domestic debt issues. These are the investment houses and universal banks. The Philippines has a broad spectrum of outstanding domestic debt instruments consisting mainly of bills, notes, bonds, debentures, commercial paper, and certificates of indebtedness. Most of the Philippine medium- and long-term private debt securities consist of long-term commercial paper (LTCP) and debentures.
