Definition of Principal amount

Principal amount

The face amount of debt; the amount borrowed or lent. Often called principal.

Principal Amount

Generally, refers to the face value of a debt.

Notional principal amount

In an interest rate swap, the predetermined dollar principal on which the
exchanged interest payments are based.

Bond

Bonds are debt and are issued for a period of more than one year. The U.S. government, local
governments, water districts, companies and many other types of institutions sell bonds. When an investor
buys bonds, he or she is lending money. The seller of the bond agrees to repay the principal amount of the
loan at a specified time. Interest-bearing bonds pay interest periodically.

Guaranteed investment contract (GIC)

A pure investment product in which a life company agrees, for a
single premium, to pay the principal amount of a predetermined annual crediting (interest) rate over the life of
the investment, all of which is paid at the maturity date.

Interest payments

Contractual debt payments based on the coupon rate of interest and the principal amount.

Interest rate swap

A binding agreement between counterparties to exchange periodic interest payments on
some predetermined dollar principal, which is called the notional principal amount. For example, one party
will pay fixed and receive variable.

Original face value

The principal amount of the mortgage as of its issue date.

Serial bonds

Corporate bonds arranged so that specified principal amounts become due on specified dates.
Related: term bonds.

amortization

This term has two quite different meanings. First, it may
refer to the allocation to expense each period of the total cost of an
intangible asset (such as the cost of a patent purchased from the inventor)
over its useful economic life. In this sense amortization is equivalent
to depreciation, which allocates the cost of a tangible long-term operating
asset (such as a machine) over its useful economic life. Second, amortization
may refer to the gradual paydown of the principal amount of a debt.
principal refers to the amount borrowed that has to be paid back to the
lender as opposed to interest that has to be paid for use of the principal.
Each period, a business may pay interest and also make a payment on
the principal of the loan, which reduces the principal amount of the loan,
of course. In this situation the loan is amortized, or gradually paid down.

Amortize

To liquidate on an instalment basis; an amortized loan is one on which the principal amount of the loan is repaid in instalments during the life of the loan.

Bond

Usually a fixed interest security under which the issuer contracts to pay the lender a fixed principal amount at a stated date in the future, and a series of interest payments, either semi-annually or annually. Interest payments may vary through the life of bond.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP)

A technical accounting term that encompasses the
conventions, rules, and procedures necessary to define accepted accounting practice at a particular time.

Principal

1) The total amount of money being borrowed or lent.
2) The party affected by agent decisions in a principal-agent relationship.

Principal of diversification

Highly diversified portfolios will have negligible unsystematic risk. In other
words, unsystematic risks disappear in portfolios, and only systematic risks survive.

Principal-agent relationship

A situation that can be modeled as one person, an agent, who acts on the behalf
of another person, the principal.

Principal only (PO)

A mortgage-backed security in which the holder receives only principal cash flows on
the underlying mortgage pool. The principal-only portion of a stripped MBS. For PO securities, all of the
principal distribution due from the underlying collateral pool is paid to the registered holder of the stripped
MBS based on the current face value of the underlying collateral pool.

Remaining principal balance

The amount of principal dollars remaining to be paid under the mortgage as of
a given point in time.

Value additivity principal

Prevails when the value of a whole group of assets exactly equals the sum of the
values of the individual assets that make up the group of assets. Stated differently, the principle that the net
present value of a set of independent projects is just the sum of the net present values of the individual projects.

Principal value

See Par value.

Principal

The original amount loaned, which is repaid plus interest. See face value.

Principal

The obligation due under a debt instrument exclusive of interest.

Accrual bond

A bond on which interest accrues, but is not paid to the investor during the time of accrual.
The amount of accrued interest is added to the remaining principal of the bond and is paid at maturity.

Amortizing interest rate swap

Swap in which the principal or national amount rises (falls) as interest rates
rise (decline).

Average life

Also referred to as the weighted-average life (WAL). The average number of years that each
dollar of unpaid principal due on the mortgage remains outstanding. Average life is computed as the weighted average time to the receipt of all future cash flows, using as the weights the dollar amounts of the principal
paydowns.

Graduated-payment mortgages (GPMs)

A type of stepped-payment loan in which the borrower's payments
are initially lower than those on a comparable level-rate mortgage. The payments are gradually increased over
a predetermined period (usually 3,5, or 7 years) and then are fixed at a level-pay schedule which will be
higher than the level-pay amortization of a level-pay mortgage originated at the same time. The difference
between what the borrower actually pays and the amount required to fully amortize the mortgage is added to
the unpaid principal balance.

MBS servicing

The requirement that the mortgage servicer maintain payment of the full amount of
contractually due principal and interest payments whether or not actually collected.

Negative amortization

A loan repayment schedule in which the outstanding principal balance of the loan
increases, rather than amortizing, because the scheduled monthly payments do not cover the full amount
required to amortize the loan. The unpaid interest is added to the outstanding principal, to be repaid later.

Bond

A long-term debt instrument in which the issuer (borrower) is
obligated to pay the investor (lender) a specified amount of
money, usually at specific intervals, and to repay the principal
amount of the loan at maturity. The periodic payments are based
on the rate of interest agreed upon at the time the instrument is
sold.

Continuous Compounding

The process of continuously adding interest to a principal plus
interest amount and calculating the resulting compound amount

Discrete Compounding

The process of adding interest to a principal plus interest amount
and calculating the resulting compound amount at specific
intervals, such as monthly or annually

Effective Interest Rate

The rate of interest actually earned on an investment. It is
calculated as the ratio of the total amount of interest actually
earned for one year divided by the amount of the principal.

simple interest

a method of determining interest in which interest is earned only on the original investment (or principal) amount

Present Value

The amount due on an obligation less any interest on that obligation that would
be expected to accrue under market interest-rate conditions over the period prior to settlement. On
an interest-bearing liability, the amount owed on the liability, the principal, is its present value.
Interest is paid in addition to that present value amount. On a noninterest-bearing liability, the
amount owed is considered to include interest. To calculate present value, the liability must be discounted to remove that interest. The liability amount, excluding interest, would be the noninterest-
bearing liability's present value.

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