From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see Loan (disambiguation).
| Finance
|
Financial markets
Bond market
Stock (Equities) Market
Forex market
Derivatives market
Commodity market
Money market
Spot (cash) Market
OTC market
Real Estate market
|
Market participants
Investors
Speculators
Institutional Investors
|
Corporate finance
Structured finance
Capital budgeting
Financial risk management
Mergers and Acquisitions
Accounting
Financial Statements
Auditing
Credit rating agency
|
Personal finance
Credit and Debt
Employment contract
Retirement
Financial planning
|
Public finance
Tax
|
Banks and banking
Fractional-reserve banking
Central Bank
List of banks
Deposits
Loan
Money supply
|
Financial regulation
Finance designations
Accounting scandals
|
History of finance
Stock market bubble
Recession
Stock market crash
|
|
This box: view • talk • edit
|
A loan is a type of debt. This article focuses exclusively on monetary loans, although, in practice, any material object might be lent. Like all debt instruments, a loan entails the redistribution of financial assets over time, between the lender and the borrower.
The borrower initially does receive an amount of money from the lender, which they pay back, usually but not always in regular installments, to the lender. This service is generally provided at a cost, referred to as interest on the debt. A loan is of the annuity type if the amount paid periodically (for paying off and interest together) is fixed.
A borrower may be subject to certain restrictions known as loan covenants under the terms of the loan.
Acting as a provider of loans is one of the principal tasks for financial institutions. For other institutions, issuing of debt contracts such as bonds is a typical source of funding.
Legally, a loan is a contractual promise of a debtor to repay a sum of money in exchange for the promise of a creditor to give another sum of money.
