Corporate bonds are usually issued in full at one time, regardless of whether shelf registration rules are adopted or not.
Medium-term notes are usually issued many times and the amount is small. The specific issuance time and scale depend on the market situation at that time. In other words, the issuance of corporate bonds is discrete, while the issuance of medium-term notes is continuous.
Second, the mode of payment.
In order to adapt to large-scale one-time issuance, the terms of corporate bond contracts are simple.
Medium-term notes not only have different maturities and prices for the same registered medium-term notes, but also the principal and/or interest payment of medium-term notes can pay attention to the prices and price indexes of other financial assets and non-financial assets.
Third, the distribution method.
In order to ensure the smooth issuance, corporate bonds are generally sold by investment banks.
Medium-term notes are issued in many ways. In the early days, investment banks sold as much as possible, or issuers sold themselves. At present, some medium-term notes are also issued by way of sales, but the biggest difference with corporate bonds lies in the so-called reverse investigation method: investment banks first seek the opinions of potential investors on the terms of the issue price and term, and then issue corresponding medium-term notes according to the opinions of these potential investors.