Creditor

Lender of money. The New York Times Financial Glossary

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creditor cred‧i‧tor [ˈkredtə ǁ -ər] noun

1. [countable] ACCOUNTING COMMERCE a person or business to whom another person or business owes money:

• The company said its largest creditor is owed $22 million.

ˈbond ˌcreditor [countable] FINANCE

someone holding bonds where the borrower is unable to repay either the bonds or the interest on them:

• Not all bond creditors receive equal treatment.

ˌgeneral ˈcreditor [countable] ACCOUNTING

when a business goes bankrupt, a creditor who has no special rights to be repaid before others, and may not be repaid at all:

• The claimants were treated as general creditors and had to wait their turn for payment.

ˈjudgment ˌcreditor also judgement creditor [countable] ACCOUNTING LAW

a creditor who has obtained the right from a court of law to demand that an amount owed to them should be paid back

ˌjunior ˈcreditor [countable] ACCOUNTING

another name for general creditor

ˌordinary ˈcreditor [countable] ACCOUNTING

when a business goes bankrupt, a creditor who will be paid after everybody else except people who have ordinary share S in the company

ˌpreferential ˈcreditor also preˌferred ˈcreditor [countable] ACCOUNTING

when a business goes bankrupt, a creditor who has the right to be paid before others:

• Preferential creditors include Customs and Excise, which is investigating how much VAT the company has neglected to pay.

seˌcured ˈcreditor [countable] ACCOUNTING

when a business goes bankrupt, a creditor who has the right to specific assets of the business:

• Bondholders were concerned that the secured creditors would take possession of assets worth the approximately $85 million owed to them and there'd be nothing left over for bondholders.

ˌsenior ˈcreditor [countable] ACCOUNTING

when a business goes bankrupt, a creditor who will be paid before junior creditors, or who will get a larger percentage of what they are owed:

• Senior creditors could receive as much as 98% of their allowed claims under the bankruptcy agreement, while junior creditors could only receive 5% to 10%.

ˈtrade ˌcreditor [countable] ACCOUNTING

a supplier who has not yet been paid by a business to which it has sold goods or services:

• The company said it has enough money to keep paying trade creditors and operating expenses.

ˌunsecured ˈcreditor [countable] ACCOUNTING

when a business goes bankrupt, a creditor who does not have any rights to specific assets of the business:

• It is likely that unsecured creditors will receive only a small fraction of their claims, if anything.

2. creditors [plural] ACCOUNTING the money owed by a business to its suppliers and lenders, and the entry in the accounts showing this:

• creditors falling due within one year

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creditor UK US /ˈkredɪtə^r/ noun [C]

► FINANCE a person, organization, or government that is owed money: »

Filing for bankruptcy protection allows the company to avoid paying creditors while it works out a plan to reorganize.

»

a big/large/major creditor

»

He has been sued several times by his creditors.

→ Compare DEBTOR(Cf. ↑debtor)

● creditors — Cf. creditors

→ See also GENERAL CREDITOR(Cf. ↑general creditor), JUDGMENT CREDITOR(Cf. ↑judgment creditor), JUNIOR CREDITOR(Cf. ↑junior creditor), ORDINARY CREDITOR(Cf. ↑ordinary creditor), PREFERENTIAL CREDITOR(Cf. ↑preferential creditor), SECURED CREDITOR(Cf. ↑secured creditor), SENIOR CREDITOR(Cf. ↑senior creditor), TRADE CREDITOR(Cf. ↑trade creditor), UNSECURED CREDITOR(Cf. ↑unsecured creditor)