Same Issuer, Two Prices? A Microstructure Analysis of China's MTN-Corp Basis
China's credit bond market has a unique feature: the same issuer can issue Medium-Term Notes in the interbank market and public corporate bonds on the exchange—with potentially different prices for identical credit risk. I analyzed 31 pairs and 9,000+ observations. The Basis exists but is thin—what's interesting is the cross-sectional dispersion and the primary-secondary market divergence.