Medium-term notes are debt instruments that can be offered continuously to an investor. An agency of the issuer offers these; and these are available in several maturity ranges.

In United States of America, these notes are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Under Rule 415 - Shelf Registration Rule). The registration empowers the borrowers like corporations, agencies, sovereign or supranational, to issue these notes to meet their requirements.

Borrowers are at liberty in framing the pattern of MTNs in order to suit their needs. They can be issued either at fixed or floating rate debt. The coupon payments can be denominated either in US dollars or in any other foreign currency. The features of MTNs and corporate bonds are similar. Like in case of corporate bonds, MTNs too are rated by the nationally recognized statistical rating organizations.