COLLATERALIZED DEBT OBLIGATION (CDO)

A collection of loans that are packaged together to create a single financial instrument. The packaged or 'securitized' loans may be backed by corporate bonds, credit card loans, mortgage or other asset-backed loans, auto loans, future receivables, any other types of debt, or a combination of such debts. The term may be used to refer to any form of securitized debt obligation, including collateralized bond obligations (CBOs), collateralized fund obligations (CFOs), asset-backed securities (ABSs), various synthetic credit structures (credit derivatives, credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations of mortgage-backed securities—or tranches of mortgage-backed securities—or other asset-backed securities (MBS CDOs or CDO of ABS securities), or CDOs of CDOs (CDO squared or CDOⁿ), and many other complex packages of financial instruments. The term 'collateralized debt obligation' is generic, although it is sometimes used to refer to any structured financial instrument that includes a pool of different forms of loans or bonds, or a bond that is not solely a collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO). Similarly, 'collateralized loan obligation' (CLO) may refer to a collection of loans that are secured by any form of loan that is not a collateralized mortgage loan. See also asset-backed security, collateralized bond obligation, credit default swap, securitisation^(BrE)/securitization^(AmE).
Bibliographical reference:
J.A. Tavakoli. Structured Finance &: Collateralized Debt Obligations (Hoboken, NJ: 2008).

Terms in bold are defined elsewhere in the Encyclopedia.
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