Tranche

Tranche

One of several related securities offered at the same time. Tranches from the same offering usually have different risk, reward, and/or maturity characteristics.

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tranche

A class of bonds. Collateralized mortgage obligations are structured with several tranches of bonds that have various maturities.

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Tranche

A part of an issue. A tranche sometimes refers to a single issue of a security released at different times. For example, a company may announce that is intends to issue $10,000,000 in bonds in two tranches of $5,000,000. Tranches are important to collateralized mortgage obligations, which are backed by pools of mortgages. These mortgages are arranged in tranches that mature at different times, for instance in 10 years, 15 years, and 30 years.

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Tranche. Certain securities, such as collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs), are made up of a number of classes, called tranches, that differ from each other because they pay different interest rates, mature on different dates, carry different levels of risk, or differ in some other way.

When the security is offered for sale, each of these tranches is sold separately.

Similarly, a large certificate of deposit (CD) may be subdivided into smaller certificates for sale to individual investors. Each smaller certificate, or tranche, matures on the same date and pays the same rate of interest, but is worth a fraction of the total amount.