offsetting balance
- noun
- /ˈɔfˌsɛtɪŋ ˈbæləns/
- Specialized
:
saldo compensatorio
- By maintaining an offsetting balance, the company paid a higher effective interest rate.
Examples
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The bank required an offsetting balance to secure the business loan.
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An offsetting balance can limit the borrower's access to all the funds from the loan.
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You need to maintain an offsetting balance in your account.
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The bank requires an offsetting balance for loan approval.
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The bank required an offsetting balance to secure the business loan.
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By maintaining an offsetting balance, the company paid a higher effective interest rate.
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The bank requires an offsetting balance for loan approval.
Synonyms
Money that a borrower must keep in a bank account when getting a loan
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is partly compositional: a learner who knows 'offset' (to counterbalance) and 'balance' (amount of money in an account) can infer it refers to a balance that serves to counterbalance or cover something. However, the specific institutional meaning — a required minimum credit held as a loan condition — is a specialized banking sense that is not fully predictable from the parts, so it is only partly transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Offsetting balance comes from a simple banking picture: the bank asks a borrower to keep a small balance of money to 'offset' part of the loan. That kept money acts like a safety for the bank and reduces its risk, so the phrase means a required minimum deposit.
