What is the meaning of Chattel Mortgage?

Chattel Mortgage is a legal term which refers to loans backed by personal movable property or chattel. It is different from traditional loans wherein people used to provide real estate as a security to the loan issuing bank or authority. However, in chattel mortgage, the bank holds the lien until the whole amount of the loan is repaid. Many other terms like personal property security, lien on personal property, movable hypothec are also used as synonyms of chattel. The legal roles of the lender and borrower are reversed in the chattel mortgage as the former does not hold a lien against the movable property but has the complete ownership of the chattel as per the terms of the loan. Usually, the ownership stays till the whole loan amount is repaid. It is only after that period that one gets full rights over the chattel