Government debt obligations, familiarly

TBONDS

These long-term securities are often issued by the U.S. Treasury and pay interest every six months until maturity. Investors sometimes call them "risk-free" assets.

This clue refers to Treasury bonds, which are long-term debt securities issued by the U.S. government to finance spending. The word "familiarly" signals that the answer is a shortened or informal version of the term—here, "T-bonds" is commonly abbreviated to "TBONDS" in crosswords. The answer plays on the idea of government debt being a well-known financial instrument, so solvers recognize the shorthand.