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Mergent Fixed Income Securities Database (FISD)

Overview

The Mergent FISD provides comprehensive data on fixed income (bond) securities issued in the United States. It covers corporate bonds, agency bonds, and US government bonds.

What you can find here:

  • Bond issue details: issue date, maturity, coupon rate, coupon type (fixed/floating/zero), offering amount, currency
  • Issuer information: issuer name, industry, SIC code, country, state
  • Bond characteristics: callable, convertible, puttable, sinking fund provisions, covenants
  • Credit ratings: Moody's and S&P ratings at issuance and over time
  • Transactions by insurance companies: NAIC insurance company bond holdings and transactions

WRDS Access

  • WRDS web interface: LSEG / Mergent
  • WRDS product name: fisd (or search for Mergent in the WRDS web interface)
  • Python API library: fisd
  • Update frequency: Varies by table
  • Data dictionary: FISD | Common

Key Tables

Use conn.list_tables(library='fisd') in the Python API to see the full list. Key tables typically include:

Table Description Use case
fisd_mergedissue Bond Issues Master file of bond issues with all characteristics
fisd_mergedissuer Bond Issuers Issuer-level information

Example: Querying Bond Data

import wrds
conn = wrds.Connection()

# List available tables
conn.list_tables(library='fisd')

# Get corporate bond issues
bonds = conn.raw_sql("""
    SELECT complete_cusip, issue_name, maturity, offering_amt,
           coupon, coupon_type, offering_date
    FROM fisd.fisd_mergedissue
    WHERE security_level = 'SEN'
      AND offering_date >= '2020-01-01'
    LIMIT 100
""", date_cols=['maturity', 'offering_date'])

For more examples, see the Python API notebook.