A synthetic CDO is a financial product that invests in non-cash assets such as swaps, options, and insurance contracts to obtain exposure to a portfolio of fixed-income assets. It is one kind of collateralized debt obligation (CDO).

While the underlying assets of regular CDOs are traditional fixed-income assets, such as loans, mortgages, and bonds, synthetic CDOs use non-cash assets as the underlying asset, such as credit default swaps, options, and other such contracts. Synthetic CDOs typically offer higher yields than traditional CDOs.

A collateralized debt obligation (CDO) is a complex structured finance product that is backed by a pool of loans and other assets and sold to institutional investors. A CDO is a particular type of derivative because, as its name implies, its value is derived from another underlying asset.

Collateralized debt obligations allow banks to reduce the amount of risk they hold on their balance sheet. The majority of banks are required to hold a certain proportion of their assets in reserve. This incentivizes the securitization and sale of assets, as holding assets in reserves is costly for the banks.