BAD PAPER

An unprotected short-term fixed income instrument which is issued either by a country, state, city, or a corporation, which has a huge probability of defaulting on their promissory notes. Since the bad paper has no collateral, it is sold at a discounted price which is equivalent to a collateral-backed fixed-income securities. But, contrary to a regular commercial paper which normally has a strong rating coming from a credit agency, bad paper don't have this quality.