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Priority Clauses and Setoff Rights

Priority Clauses and Setoff Rights terms for secured lending, liens, guarantees, priority, recourse, filings, and lender recovery rights.

Priority Clauses and Setoff Rights terms explain collateral, security interests, guarantees, recourse, creditor priority, subordination, filings, and structured collateral used to support repayment.

Use this branch when recovery depends on what the lender can claim, who supports repayment, and whether rights are enforceable and valuable.

Key Terms in This Branch

TermUse it for
Negative PledgeCollateral, lien, filing, guarantee, recourse, priority, subordination, secured-debt, or structured-credit support term.
Pari Passu ClauseCollateral, lien, filing, guarantee, recourse, priority, subordination, secured-debt, or structured-credit support term.
Set-OffCollateral, lien, filing, guarantee, recourse, priority, subordination, secured-debt, or structured-credit support term.

What to Check

Check the security agreement, filing record, collateral description, valuation date, lien priority, guarantee language, recourse terms, perfection status, covenant package, and enforcement path.

Common Mistakes

  • Assuming collateral value equals recovery value.
  • Ignoring lien priority, perfection, valuation haircuts, and enforcement cost.
  • Treating a guarantee as stronger than the guarantor and contract language support.
  • Confusing unsecured, subordinated, and nonrecourse exposure.

Collateral and guarantee outcomes depend on documents, law, valuation, and enforcement facts; this page is educational, not legal advice.

In this section

Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.

Negative Pledge

A negative pledge restricts a borrower from granting liens or security interests that could weaken existing creditors' position.

Pari Passu Clause

A pari passu clause states that specified obligations rank equally with other obligations of the same class.

Set-Off

An agreement to balance one debt against another or offset a loss with a gain.

Revised on Sunday, June 21, 2026