TIGRS, CATS, AND LIONS ARE A TWIST ON A POPULAR KIND OF BOND

TIGRs, CATS, LIONs, and the rest of the menagerie of proprietary names that came out of the mid-1980s, were zero coupon bonds based on the interest of U.S. Treasury securities.  Brokerage firms held the Treasury bonds in escrow and issued new bonds based on their interest payments in a process known as coupon stripping.  Though they are no longer issued, they are still traded on the secondary market, where they are prized for their low risk and reliable returns.

See the Encyclopedia's entry on STRIPS to learn about how Treasury-backed zero coupon bonds are issued today.