What does the chart show? The par value of transactions in the U.S. Treasury securities market that involve fails, viewable on a daily, monthly or annual basis.

What's a fail? Fails reflect either a failure on the part of a seller to deliver a security needed to settle a trade, and/or a failure on the part of a buyer to receive the security.

Click the above chart to view the most recent 12 months of data.

What's the data source? Fixed Income Clearing Corporation, the central clearing and netting facility for the trades that take place in the vast market for U.S. government securities, collects these data each day in the course of preparing the trades for settlement.

Are there other sources? The Federal Reserve Bank of New York also presents data on fails in the U.S. government securities markets, but its figures show weekly, not daily, activity, and reflect trading activity only by those securities firms that are primary dealers in U.S. government securities.

For more information on fails and how they can occur, go to http://www.newyorkfed.org/markets/pridealers_failsprimer.html