Editing Capital market (section)

=== Government on primary markets ===
[[File:Barclays HQ.jpg|thumb|[[One Churchill Place]], Barclays headquarters in [[Canary Wharf]], London. Barclays is a major player in the world's primary and secondary bond markets.]]

When a government wants to raise long-term finance it will often sell bonds in the capital markets. In the 20th and early 21st centuries, many governments would use [[investment bank]]s to organize the sale of their bonds. The leading bank would underwrite the bonds, and would often head up a syndicate of brokers, some of whom might be based in other investment banks. The syndicate would then sell to various investors. For developing countries, a [[multilateral development bank]] would sometimes provide an additional layer of [[underwriting]], resulting in risk being shared between the investment bank(s), the multilateral organization, and the end investors. However, since 1997 it has been increasingly common for governments of the larger nations to bypass investment banks by making their bonds directly available for purchase online. Many governments now sell most of their bonds by computerized auction. Typically, large volumes are put up for sale in one go; a government may only hold a small number of auctions each year. Some governments will also sell a continuous stream of bonds through other channels. The biggest single seller of debt is the U.S. government; there are usually several transactions for such sales every second,{{efn|Even if there is no activity from big players, U.S. citizens might be making small investments through channels like ''Treasury Direct''.}} which corresponds to the continuous updating of the U.S. real-time debt clock.<ref name = "IntCM"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usdebtclock.org |title=U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time|work=usdebtclock.org}}</ref>