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Gilt-edged securities are bonds issued by some national governments. The term is of British origin, and then referred to the debt securities issued by the Bank of England, whose paper certificates had a gilt (or gilded) edge. Hence, they are known as gilt-edged securities, or gilts for short. Today the term is used in the United Kingdom as well as some Commonwealth nations, such as South Africa and India. However, when reference is made to "gilts", what is generally meant is UK gilts, unless otherwise specified. Colloquially, the term "gilt-edged" is sometimes used to denote high-grade securities, consequently carrying low yields, as opposed to relatively riskier, below investment-grade securities. In 2002 the data collected by the British Office for National Statistics revealed that about two-thirds of all UK gilts are held by insurance companies and pension funds. Since 2009 large quantities of gilts have been created and repurchased by the Bank of England under its policy of quantitative easing, and in recent years overseas investors have also been attracted to gilts by their "safe haven" status. The term "gilt account" is also a term used by the Reserve Bank of India to refer to a constituent account maintained by a custodian bank for maintenance and servicing of dematerialized government securities owned by a retail customer.〔(PNB Gilts )〕 == History == The first fund raising that could be considered a gilt issue was in 1694 when King William III borrowed £1.2m to fund a war with France via the newly created Bank of England. The term "gilt" however would not be used until the late 19th century for these types of debt securities. This form of government borrowing proved successful and became a common way to fund wars and later infrastructure projects when tax revenue was not sufficient to cover their costs.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=A Brief History Of British Gilt Edged Securities )〕 Many of the early issues were perpetual, having no fixed maturity date. These were issued under various names but were later generally referred to as Consols. == Conventional gilts == These are the simplest form of UK government bond and make up the largest share of UK government debt (30% as of March 2008). A conventional gilt is a bond issued by the UK government which pays the holder a fixed cash payment (or coupon) every six months until maturity, at which point the holder receives his final coupon payment and the return of the principal. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gilt-edged securities」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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