"Notes" in this context refers to "promissory notes" (pagarés)

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Note added at 37 mins (2007-03-30 10:19:25 GMT)
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May also be translated as "treasury notes", according to context.

Here are some bilingual examples:

Mexican banks have created an active market in their promissory notes (pagarés). These zero-coupon notes are a popular short-term investment instrument for ...
store.eiu.com/product/280000228MX-sample.html

The maximum outstanding amount of these notes may not exceed. 100 million UFs (they must be denominated in UFs). Central Bank’sU.S. Dollar Notes (Pagarés en ...
www.natlaw.com/bulletin/2000/0003/iatr-3-24-2000.pdf

Medium-term notes. Pagarés a mediano plazo; obligaciones a mediano plazo. Medium-term subordinated notes. Obligaciones subordinadas a mediano plazo. ...
www.bancopopular.com/vi/about/learning/vi-abu-lea-glos-m-en...

"Pagare" or "Pagares" means those notes referred to in SECTION 2.12 hereof. ... Whenever possible, each provision of this Agreement, the Notes, Pagares and ...
www.secinfo.com/dSYE7.6155.1.htm

notes (“pagares”). These notes were to be repaid in United States dollars. Each of the Xacur brothers gave his aval on various notes to insure ...
www.iiiglobal.org/members/committee_f/Xacur_Case.pdf

one of a clearly public nature — namely, Spanish Treasury Notes (Pagarés del. Tesoro). The maintenance of a situation whereby the government itself issued ...
www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/j.1475-5890.200...

STATE BE AUTHORIZED TO ADDRESS CRITICAL STATE NEEDS BY ISSUING NOTES IN ... DEL ESTADO MEDIANTE LA EMISIÓN DE PAGARÉS POR IMPORTES TOTALES HASTA ...
www.co.boulder.co.us/bocc/Ballot Issues/2005/State Referend... -
Short-Term Notes (Pagarés a Corto Plazo) Es un pagaré que cuenta solamente con un pago efectuado en el día del vencimiento en el cual se incluye los ...
es.mimi.hu/economia/pagares.html -

Approved the execution of a restricted and private offering through the issuance of notes denominated “Pagarés de Telefónica del Perú” for an outstanding ...
www.telefonica.com.pe/inversores/pdf/2005-2in.pdf





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Note added at 5 hrs (2007-03-30 15:30:17 GMT)
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When speaking of NOTES in this context, this does not refer to bonds or debentures ("bonos" or "obligaciones") but rather to (promissory) notes, which are "pagarés" in Spanish. (In English it is customary to shorten "promissory notes" to "notes")

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Note added at 1 day3 hrs (2007-03-31 12:48:35 GMT)
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Without additional context and without knowing whether this is a back translation, I can offer the following:

"Títulos valores" is a generic term that, depending on the context, is used to refer to "securities" in general (bonos, acciones) or negotiable instruments (letras de cambio, pagarés, cheques)

"Título físico" refers to shares/bonds that are actually represented by share/bond certificates (a physical piece of paper), rather than being "uncertificated", i.e., represented by electronic book-entries called "sistema de anotación en cuenta" in Spain.

In my opinion, if the original Spanish uses the term "título", "note" might be considered a mistranslation, since "título" is a broad term, while the use of "note" in English usually refers to a specific type of "título valor" ("promissory notes", called "pagarés" in Spanish).

Here is a brief explanation of the foregoing:

Los títulos Valores son documentos mercantiles en los que está incorporado un derecho privado patrimonial, por lo que el ejercicio del derecho está vinculado jurídicamente a la posesión del documento. En las compraventas que se realizan dentro del tráfico mercantil, está muy extendida la utilización de algunos Títulos Valores como medio de pago y, en ocasiones, como instrumento de crédito.

Los títulos valores están regulados por la ley Cambiaria y del Cheque, promulgada el 16 de julio de 1.985.

Los títulos valores más usuales son:

* Las Letras de Cambio. Son documentos negociables que representan una orden incondicional de pago, de una persona llamada "girador", a otra llamada "girado", para que pague a la orden de un tercero o beneficiario, cierta cantidad de dinero en la fecha y lugar indicados en el propio documento. Puede también definirse como un título librado por una entidad crediticia, a la orden de sí misma y que se negocia en Bolsa.
* Los Cheques. Son documentos bancarios escritos, por los que se puede disponer de dinero de una cuenta, por parte del propio titular, o por otra persona a la que mediante el cheque se le autoriza para retirar una determinada cantidad de dinero de una cuenta sin que sea necesaria la presencia del titular.
* Los pagarés. Son documentos por los que una persona se compromete a pagar una cantidad de dinero en una fecha establecida, a otra persona a favor de la que se ha expedido dicho pagaré, o a una tercera persona, a quien la segunda ha endosado el documento.

Existen también los Pagarés del Estado, que son obligaciones emitidas por el mismo.
http://www.bolsayfondosdeinversion.es/online-titulos-valores...




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Note added at 1 day3 hrs (2007-03-31 12:55:54 GMT)
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To address smarttrans's observation: IF this is an English original and not a translation from Spanish into English in which the term "título" is mistranslated as "note":

I would assume that if the author of the text wanted to refer to a "bono" the original would say "bond" (or "debenture"), while "note" would normally be used to refer to a "promissory note" (pagaré). As smarttrans indicates, "bonos cupón cero" are indeed "títulos valores", but as indicated in the passage I copied above, they are not the only kind of títulos valores, and IMO the use of "notes" to refer to a "bond" is at least quite strange if not patently inaccurate.

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Note added at 1 day10 hrs (2007-03-31 20:30:33 GMT)
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Here is a passage from the class notes in a course in Financial Accounting that clearly indicates that zero-coupon bonds and zero-coupon notes are NOT the same, and providing definitions for each. (from the webpage of the Department of Accountancy and Business Law at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington):


Some purchasers like zero coupon bonds, because there is no need to consider uncertainty about future interest rates and the reinvesting of interest coupons. If one wants a fixed sum some years in the future, then zero coupon notes may be a more useful instrument than coupon bonds. Investment advisors understand this advantage. Another advantage to the purchaser, but one not so well understood by the press, accountants, and even some investment bankers, is the extra call protection in a zero coupon note. Because the issuer can call the bonds at par value (and no other cash interest payments will occur over the entire life of the bond), it will never pay the issuer to call them unless interest rates drop to zero. Thus, the lender has more protection than in a callable coupon-bearing bond against interest rate declines. Of course, such protection has a price, and the lack of an "option" feature to the issuer may account for much of the apparently lower cost of borrowing via zero coupon notes.
www.csb.uncw.edu/people/rocknessj/classes/MBA505/SM CHAPTER...



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Note added at 1 day11 hrs (2007-03-31 20:49:51 GMT)
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Here are some websites where I believe you will see that in the context of your text "notes" and "zero coupon notes" refer to "zero coupon promissory notes" (in Spanish: "pagarés cupón cero"):

The exchange of promissory notes payable in coupons for zero coupon notes has satisfied the demand for longer term instruments, as well as helping to build ...
www.bcentral.cl/eng/funorg/functions/05.htm

... acquiring an aggregate of $7625000 Maturity Value of the Company's Convertible Subordinated Zero Coupon Promissory Notes (the "Zero Coupon Notes") and ...
www.secinfo.com/dr6nd.84Sa.s.htm

... issue in tranches 10-year unsecured zero coupon promissory notes ("Notes") in ... amount at maturity Series A Zero Coupon Notes ("Notes") due in 2006. ...
sec.edgar-online.com/1996/11/13/00/0001008614-96-000015/Section7.asp

One clear target of refinancing is the zero-coupon promissory notes that ... These zero-coupon notes are a popular short-term investment instrument for ...
store.eiu.com/product/280000228MX-sample.html

zero coupon promissory notes (refer note 6). 1 043. (1 043). Forward exchange cover (cost)/income (refer note ... The promissory notes are zero coupon notes ...
www.spoornet.co.za/SpoornetWebContentSAP/documents/Transnet...