Soft call protection
A weak form of protection for lenders/investors in securities, designed to mitigate the adverse effects of call risk for investors. Soft call protection requires the payment of a premium to the investor, on any early redemption of a callable bond by the borrower/issuer. The premium is usually small - for example 0.5% or 1% of the principal per annum - over the remaining life at early redemption. At early redemption the premium becomes payable, together with principal and outstanding interest at the call/redemption date. A 1% premium is often referred to as 101 call protection. It sometimes applies only for an early part - for example just the first year - of the life of a security (the security becoming freely callable after that initial period of soft call protection).
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