Mr. Lay, with little additional collateral, made just such sales to pay down tens of millions of dollars in debt.
The bank wants to know what assets the person may have stashed away that could be put up as additional collateral, as real estate values fall.
As the stock price declined he received a number of margin calls to provide additional collateral for these loans.
And then there is the problem of the additional collateral that some investors must come up with.
But regulators and traders said today that most brokers required customers trading on margin to put up additional collateral in case there are sudden losses.
It can also be secured against a residence in conjunction with a business property as a means of obtaining additional collateral for the lender.
In some of its trades, Long-Term did not have to put up any additional collateral.
It is in Olympia & York's Canadian assets that the banks are likely to find additional collateral worth holding.
If the value of the borrowed shares rises substantially, the broker may ask for additional collateral.
That's why the Finns are insisting on additional collateral against any more European bail-out loans.