haircut

noun

1. The act of cutting of the hair, often done professionally by a barber, hair stylist, or beautician.
2. The style into which the hair is cut.
3. A partial loss, financially: thus, in a bankruptcy proceeding, the proportional reduction in the debt that will be paid to each creditor (based on an evaluation of the total debt owed and the total assets of the debtor); among investors, the negative return on investment from a losing proposition.

   “to take a haircut”

   “And he needs to make sure that any American bank that was involved in loans to Asia, and now wants to share in the I.M.F. bailout, takes a haircut. And I'm not just talking about a trim.”

   “Its president, Nestor Kirchner, was expected to confirm overnight that about 75% of the country's bondholders had agreed to swap their old debt for new at a loss of up to 70 cents in the dollar—also a record and one that Mr Kirchner has called “the biggest haircut in history” for investors.”

   “Something similar was happening at the same time in Greece. In the spring of 2012 Greece's public debt did, eventually, take a haircut, confirming that an unpayable debt will receive a haircut whatever the dogmas of European officials.”

   “And there is a growing consensus that it is finally time for founders to swallow their pride, accept a huge haircut to valuation and help establish a new floor for their stock to start growing again, helping to encourage all the companies coming up behind them to do the same.”

4. The difference between the value of a loan and the value of its collateral.

   “Government securities having high credit rating such as Treasury bonds and Treasury bills are usually subjected to 1% to 10% haircut, while for more risky, volatile or illiquid securities, such as a stock option, the haircut might be as high as 30%.”

verb

1. To reduce the value assigned to an asset.

   “But whereas in the past it has been possible for a brokerage house to credit a customer’s account for 100 percent of the value of a commodity, we have required that that value be haircutted significantly.”

   “That is because the future stream of income is discounted to present value at perhaps as much as two to three percentage points above the prime rate and then haircutted by as high as 33½%.”

   “The CFTC also permits FCMs to accept non-cash, non-security assets, but these must be "haircutted"--to 80 percent of their value.”

   “The ratio of these two numbers represents the ratio by which column one, the gross profits, needs to be "haircutted," to amortize an asset initially established at 17%, with 6% interest starting out at the same place and ending at the same place over the same period of time.”

   “DCC Credit Rating of First Priority CE Provider or Counterparty; or Cash/Cash Equivalent (which is not Haircutted)”