write-down

[sg7007]

I'm not sure if this is a proper question to post on this board, but I couldn't find a better place for this.

In the following sentence, what exactly does the action described by the expression, "writing down claims" mean?

"In one breath Mr. Obama praises a bank that wrote down its claims on Chrysler and in the next lashes out at investors who, as was their right, did not."

Thanks in advance.

[david2008]

Its a finance term meaning to write-off the debt outstanding to Chrysler. Basically the sentence means some investors accepted to write-down to 0 (assign a value of 0) to the debt they held in Chrysler, while other investors didn't.