Unsecured short-term fixed income instrument that is issued either by a corporation, city, state or country, that has a high probability of defaulting on their promissory notes. Since bad paper is not backed by collateral, it is sold at a discount to the equivalent collateral-backed fixed-income securities. However, in contrast to regular commercial paper which typically has a strong rating from a credit agency, bad paper does not possess this quality. 



|||Bad paper is risky. Not only is it not backed by collateral, it is also issued by an entity that could potentially fail to meets its obligations. Bad-paper investors take on high levels of risk and, as a result, would be offered an attractive interest rate as proper compensation.