Unsecured debt

A loan not secured by an underlying asset or collateral. Unsecured debt is the opposite of secured debt.

Investopedia Says:
The concept of unsecured debt is easily understood when its opposite is considered. A good example of secured debt would be a mortgage. The bank loans out money to a lender who uses it to buy a house; the house becomes the asset backing the loan.

In the case of unsecured debt, a lender loans money without the security that an underlying asset provides. For this reason, unsecured debt carries more risk for the lender, which in turn makes the loan more expensive. The more additional risk that a lender must take on, the higher the rate of interest a borrower must pay, making unsecured loans subject to higher rates.

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Debt offering backed only by the creditworthiness and reputation of the issuer, and not supported by Collateral. See also Commercial Paper; Debenture; Note; Subordinated Debt.

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In finance, unsecured debt refers to any type of debt or general obligation that is not collateralized by a lien on specific assets of the borrower in the case of a bankruptcy or liquidation.

In the event of the bankruptcy of the borrower, the unsecured creditors will have a general claim on the assets of the borrower after the specific pledged assets have been assigned to the secured creditors, although the unsecured creditors will usually realize a smaller proportion of their claims than the secured creditors.

In some legal systems, unsecured creditors who are also indebted to the insolvent debtor are able (and in some jurisdictions, required) to set-off the debts, which actually puts the unsecured creditor with a matured liability to the debtor in a pre-preferential position.

See also

• debt
• high-yield debt

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