Negative pledge

Negative pledge is a provision in a contract which prohibits a party to the contract from creating any security interests over certain property specified in the provision.

Negative pledges often appear in security documents, where they operate to prohibit the person who is granting the security interest from creating any other security interests over the same property, which might compete with (or rank pari passu with) the security of the first secured creditor under the security document in which the negative pledge appears.