STRUCTURED FINANCE

This usually refers to cash flow financing where there is little or no collateral involved in the loan, but there is strong historical operating cash flow to support debt repayment.

Structured finance describes any "non-standard" way of raising money. These tailor-made securities goes beyond "standard" securities like conventional loans, debentures, debt, equity. The reason to structure a more advanced security may be that conventional securities may be unattractive, unavailable or too expensive.

A service offered by many large financial institutions for companies with very unique financing needs. These financing needs usually don't match conventional financial products such as a loan. Structured finance generally involves highly complex financial transactions.