An issue of debt securities that carries an interest rate very close to the prevailing market rates (in the secondary market), irrespective of the time it was introduced to the market. For example, an on-the-run Treasury issue is the most recently auctioned Treasury issue for a given maturity. An on-the-run bond (bellwether bond) is considered a standard (a benchmark) against which the performance of other bonds is related. Government bonds (of stable and credit-worthy economies) are often used as bellwether bonds, in view of their standard features and fundamentals.

On-the-run issues are usually used as the basis for constructing yield curves.

An on-the-run issue is also known as a benchmark issue or an bellwether issue or a current-coupon issue.