An unsecured creditor is a
creditor
A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property ...
other than a
preferential creditor that does not have the benefit of any
security interests in the assets of the
debtor
A debtor or debitor is a legal entity (legal person) that owes a debt to another entity. The entity may be an individual, a firm, a government, a company or other legal person. The counterparty is called a creditor. When the counterpart of th ...
.
In the event of the
bankruptcy of the debtor, the unsecured creditors usually obtain a ''
pari passu'' distribution out of the assets of the insolvent company on a liquidation in accordance with the size of their debt after the
secured creditors have enforced their
security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...
and the preferential creditors have exhausted their claims.
Although in a
liquidation
Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistr ...
the unsecured creditors will usually realize the smallest proportion of their claims, in some legal systems, unsecured creditors who are also indebted to the insolvent debtor can (and in some jurisdictions, must)
set off the debts, putting the unsecured creditor with a matured liability to the debtor in a pre-preferential position.
See also
*
Preferential creditor
*
Secured creditor
Footnotes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unsecured Creditor
Credit
Bankruptcy
Insolvency