Underwriting, financial intermediation provided by INVESTMENT BANKING firms in PRIMARY MARKETS, is the purchase and subsequent resale to the public of new issues of securities. Investment banking firms assist in the design and creation of new securities issues for CORPORATIONs wishing to raise additional CAPITAL. Once a new issue is created, an investment banking firm purchases from the corporation the entire new issue at a discount below the anticipated MARKET VALUE of the issue. ADVERTISING by way of a PROSPECTUS, an investment banking firm promotes and sells these new issues to the public. When the new issue is large, if there is a significant amount of money required to purchase the new issue or if there is considerable RISK associated with the new issue, a consortium of investment banking firms, called an underwriting syndicate, will be formed to manage the new issue. The investment banking firm that organized the underwriting syndicate is known as the lead underwriter.