Contractual provision in a Credit Agreement requiring the borrower to maintain a certain financial metric above or below a pre-agreed threshold. Maintenance covenants are tested periodically (most typically on a quarterly basis), and lack of compliance with the threshold on the test date results in an event of default under the credit agreement.
Examples of covenants: Net or Gross Leverage (most frequent), Interest Coverage, Fixed Charge Coverage Ratio, Minimum EBITDA, Maximum Capex, etc.
Also known as a Financial Covenant