A collateral agreement is a contract regarding the provision of collateral for trading transactions between two business partners. The agreement involves the transfer of collaterals (usually securities, cash collaterals) as soon as the market value of the trading transactions requiring collateral exceeds a threshold amount (ThA). The threshold amount the contract partners grant each other can vary.

Both exposures from open trading transactions and values from collaterals already provided fluctuate, depending on the market. For this reason there must be a comparison of the exposures and the collateral per counterparty or issuer at agreed time intervals (daily, monthly, for example). To restrict transaction costs, additional payment obligations arising from the threshold amount being exceeded do not have to be met immediately on the valuation key date, but rather in phases, each time what is known as the minimum transfer amount (MTA) is exceeded.