Standard terms of treatment

Paris Club treatments are defined individually, by consensus of all creditor countries. Most treatments fall under the following pre-defined categories, listed below by increased degree of concessionality:

- "Classic terms" : standard treatment

- "Houston terms" : for highly-indebted lower-middle-income countries

- "Naples terms": for highly-indebted poor countries

- "Cologne terms" : for countries eligible to the HIPC initiative.

Eligibility for the different terms is assessed on a case-by-case basis by Paris Club creditors, taking into account the track record of the debtor country with the Paris Club and the IMF and various criteria, notably per-capita income, level of indebtedness and of debt service. Any debtor country declared eligible for specific terms by Paris Club creditors may decline these terms in favour of a less concessional set of terms, notably if it considers them to have a negative impact for its creditworthiness.

Other terms had been defined in previous Paris Club treatments. Though they are no longer used, a part of the outstanding debt owed by debtor countries was treated according to these terms:

- "Toronto terms" (replaced by "Naples terms")

- "London terms" (replaced by "Naples terms")

- "Lyon terms" (replaced by "Cologne terms")