right of offset
- noun
- Formal
:
derecho de compensación
- If you default on your loan, the bank may exercise its right of offset and withdraw funds from your account.
Examples
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The terms of the contract clearly explain the lender's right of offset in the event of missed payments.
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Many customers are unaware that banks have a right of offset against their deposit accounts.
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The bank exercised its right of offset to recover the loan.
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Did you know that banks have a right of offset?
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If you default on your loan, the bank may exercise its right of offset and withdraw funds from your account.
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The terms of the contract clearly explain the lender's right of offset in the event of missed payments.
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Many customers are unaware that banks have a right of offset against their deposit accounts.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound clearly links 'right' (an entitlement) with 'offset' (something that reduces or neutralizes), so a learner could plausibly infer it refers to an entitlement to neutralize or counterbalance sums. However, the precise legal/banking procedure implied (the bank seizing funds from an account to cover a defaulted loan) is a specialized institutional meaning that is not fully predictable from the common-word senses, so it is only partly transparent.
Etymology
Right of offset comes from the idea of offset, which means 'to balance by moving one thing against another', and the right to do that. Imagine a bank moving money from your account to pay a loan you have not paid. That's why the phrase means the bank can 'take' funds from your account to cover a debt.
