tranche

[trahnch, trahnsh, trahnsh]

noun

1. Finance.

   1. one part or division of a larger unit, as of an asset pool or investment.

      The loan will be repaid in three tranches.

   2. a group of securities that share a certain characteristic and form part of a larger offering.

      The second tranche of the bond issue has a five-year maturity.

2. any part, division, or installment.

   We’ve hired the first tranche of researchers.

verb (used with object)

tranched, tranching 

1. Finance.,  to divide into parts.

   tranched debt;

   A credit portfolio can be tranched into a variety of components that are then further subdivided.

tranche

/ trɑːnʃ /

noun

1. a portion or instalment, esp of a loan or share issue

Word History and Origins

Origin of tranche¹

First recorded in 1930–35; from French: literally, “a slice,” from Old French trenchier, trancher “to cut”; trench

Word History and Origins

Origin of tranche¹

from French, literally: a slice

Example Sentences

The buzz around the files grew to a fever pitch last week, when House Democrats released a tranche of tens of thousands of Epstein’s emails.

Read more on Salon

Hours after the release of those exchanges, House Republicans released a far larger tranche of 20,000 files to counter what they said was a Democratic effort to "cherry-pick" documents.

Read more on BBC

The first tranche of this payment of S$0.03 a share will be paid in December, in addition to the interim dividend of S$0.05 declared.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Within hours, House Republicans then released a massive tranche of documents to counter what they said was a Democratic effort to "cherry-pick" documents.

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They took giant pools of home loans and carved up the payments made by homeowners into pieces, called tranches.

Read more on Literature

When To Use

What does tranche mean?

In finance, a tranche is a portion of a security, such as a loan, mortgage, stock, or bond, that can be sold to an investor. Securities are sometimes broken up to make them easier to sell. There are many different kinds of tranches based on characteristics such as risk, time, or whether they are backed up by assets.For example, banks loan money to people to buy homes. Often, such mortgages are paid back over 15 to 30 years. Rather than waiting for a person to repay a mortgage over 30 years, the bank will sell the mortgage to an investor so it will have money to lend to other customers. Few investors are willing to risk buying a 30-year mortgage from a bank. Instead the bank will pool a bunch of mortgages together and divide (tranche) them into different bundles they can sell to investors. For example, one tranche might include the first three years of each mortgage, another tranche will include the first five years, and another the full 30 years.This allows investors to buy the low-risk tranche of three-year mortgages that will mature (come due) soon but have a low interest rate. Or they can buy the riskier tranche of 30-year mortgages that will have higher interest rates. Tranching helps the bank get more money to lend to customers and helps investors adjust their investment depending on how much risk they want to take.In finance, tranche can also be used as a verb to mean to cut something into parts.Outside of finance, tranche can be used more generally to refer to a division, slice, or portion of something.Example: I don’t need money right away so I have money invested in a bunch of long-term tranches.