WordNet
n. a minimum credit balance that a bank may require a borrower to keep on deposit as a condition for granting a loan; a common requirement for establishing a line of credit at a bank; "the compensating balance increases the effective interest rate to the bank since the net amount loaned is reduced but the interest paid is unchanged" [syn: offsetting balance]
Usage examples of "compensating balance".
Lawless that he was able to market the assets without your knowledge and able to withdraw his compensating balance.
His education's been lopsidedtechnical, with no compensating balance in humanities.
His left leg was shorter than his right, but with the aid of a built-up shoe he walked with only a slight limp, and although his neck did incline sharply toward the right, as if to give his body a compensating balance, it did not prevent him from doing what he loved most: reading the shelves of great books he had acquired at Princeton.
Men believed that a woman's smaller, weaker physical form that allowed them to dominate her was a compensating balance and that no woman must ever be allowed to realize her full potential, or the balance would be upset.
Legal safeguards surrounding WormCam use were being promoted, by law-enforcement and investigation agencies like the FBI and the police, as a compensating balance to the loss of privacy and other rights.