Industry WIKI

Banco di Napoli S.p.A., among the oldest banks in the world, was an Italian banking subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo group, as one of the 6 retail brands other than "Intesa Sanpaolo". It was acquired by the Italian banking group Sanpaolo IMI (the predecessor of Intesa Sanpaolo) in 2002 and ceased being an independent bank. In February 2018, Intesa Sanpaolo announced their new business plan,

Banco Hispano Americano (BHA) was a private Spanish bank that operated during most of the 20th century, becoming one of the most important financial institutions in the country. The activities of the Hispano Americano were not limited to the financial sector and it also had a prominent presence in the industrial sector through various investments. It was also linked to foreign trade, ope

Bancomat is an Italian interbank network for cash withdrawals widely used in Italy. It was first introduced in 1983 for use with automated teller machines.

A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.

A bank account is a financial account maintained by a bank or other financial institution in which the financial transactions between the bank and a customer are recorded. Each financial institution sets the terms and conditions for each type of account it offers, which are classified in commonly understood types, such as deposit accounts, credit card accounts, current accounts, loan ac

Bank Australia is an Australian customer-owned bank based in Collingwood, Victoria. The organisation can trace its origins back to 1957, when the CSIRO Co-operative Credit Society was formed. Over succeeding years, mergers among 72 other credit unions and co-operative banks eventually led to the creation of the Members & Education Credit Union (mecu) in 2003, which became Bankmecu in 201

Bank Clearing Center Ltd. (Hebrew: מרכז סליקה בנקאי; known in its abbrevatiion Masav (Hebrew: Masav) operates the national infrastructure for payment transfers in the Israeli economy. Masav leads the payments and clearing sector in Israel and operates advanced payment transfer systems for tens of thousands of organizations, financial entities and government institutions in Israel. The v

A bank code is a code assigned by a central bank, a bank supervisory body or a Bankers Association in a country to all its licensed member banks or financial institutions. The rules vary to a great extent between the countries. Also the name of bank codes varies. In some countries the bank codes can be viewed over the internet, but mostly in the local language.

A bank examiner is a financial professional who has the task of making sure that banks and savings and loan associations are operating legally and safely, in accordance with the bank regulations imposed on these institutions by the chartering level of government. In the United States, they may conduct supervision on behalf of a U.S. government agency, the Federal Reserve System, a state

A bank failure occurs when a bank is unable to meet its obligations to its depositors or other creditors because it has become insolvent or too illiquid to meet its liabilities. Failing banks share commonalities: rising asset losses, deteriorating solvency, and an increasing reliance on expensive noncore funding.

Bank fraud is the use of potentially illegal means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently posing as a bank or other financial institution. In many instances, bank fraud is a criminal offence.

Bank of Dave is a 2023 British biographical comedy-drama film directed by Chris Foggin, written by Piers Ashworth and produced by Matt Williams, Karl Hall and Piers Tempest. It stars Joel Fry, Phoebe Dynevor, Rory Kinnear, Hugh Bonneville, Paul Kaye, Jo Hartley and Cathy Tyson.

A bank of issue, also referred to as a note-issuing bank or issuing authority, is a financial institution that issues banknotes.

The Bank of North America was the first chartered bank in the United States, and served as the country's first de facto central bank. It was chartered by the Congress of the Confederation on May 26, 1781, and opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 7, 1782.

Bank regulation and supervision refers to a form of financial regulation which subjects banks to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, enforced by a financial supervisory authority or supervisor, with semantic variations across jurisdictions. By and large, bank regulation and supervision aims at ensuring the stability of the banking sector and at fostering transparency betwe

Bank reserves are a commercial bank's cash holdings physically held by the bank, and deposits held in the bank's account with the central bank. In most countries, the central bank may set minimum reserve requirements that mandate commercial banks under their purview to hold cash or deposits at the central bank equivalent to at least a prescribed percentage of their liabilities, such as c

A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many clients withdraw their money from a bank, because they believe the bank may fail in the near future. It may occur when, in a fractional-reserve banking system (where banks normally only keep a small proportion of their assets as cash), a large volume of customers seek to withdraw a greater amount of cash from deposit accounts with a financia

Banking secrecy, alternatively known as financial privacy, banking discretion, or bank safety, is a conditional agreement between a bank and its clients that all foregoing activities remain secure, confidential, and private. Most often associated with banking in Switzerland, banking secrecy is prevalent in Luxembourg, Monaco, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, and Lebanon, among other off-sh

A Bank State Branch (often referred to as "BSB") is the name used in Australia for a bank code, which is a branch identifier. The BSB is normally used in association with the account number system used by each financial institution. The structure of the BSB + account number does not permit for account numbers to be transferable between financial institutions. While similar in structure,

A bank tax, or a bank levy, is a tax on banks which was discussed in the context of the 2008 financial crisis. The bank tax is levied on the capital at risk of financial institutions, excluding federally insured deposits, with the aim of discouraging banks from taking unnecessary risks. The bank tax is levied on a limited number of sophisticated taxpayers and is not especially difficult

A bank transaction tax is a tax levied on debit (and/or credit) entries on bank accounts. In 1989, at the Buenos Aires meetings of the International Institute of Public Finance, University of Wisconsin–Madison Professor of Economics Edgar L. Feige proposed extending the tax reform ideas of John Maynard Keynes, James Tobin and Lawrence Summers, to their logical conclusion, namely to tax a

The Bankcard-Servicenetz (lit. 'bank card service network') is a German ATM card interbank network group provided by the Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken services group. Technically it is not an interbank network but uses the pre-existing girocard network. Member banks of this cash credit group charge ATM usage fees at a low level and most customers of the co-operative banks enjoy free w

The banker of ancient times was employed within financial activities, during the ancient Mesopotamian, ancient Greek and ancient Roman periods.

A banker's acceptance is a document issued by a bank institution that represents a bank's commitment to make a requested future payment. The request will typically specify the payee, the amount, and the date on which it is eligible for payment. After acceptance, the request becomes an unconditional liability of the bank. Banker's acceptances are distinguished from ordinary time drafts in

Bankers' bonuses are traditionally paid or awarded to some workers in the finance industry at the end of the bank's financial year. They are intended to reward employee behavior during that year that has increased the profits of the bank or some relevant part of its business, as shown by the annual accounts. The bonus culture is usually associated with the front office or investment bank

Banking as a service (BaaS) is the provision of banking products (such as deposit accounts, loans and credit cards) to customers through non-bank or non-financial third party partnerships. The bank provides the balance sheet management, including capital, liquidity and credit risk management, while the partner company (typically a fintech) interacts directly with the customer via their p

In ancient Rome there were a variety of officials tasked with banking. These were the argentarii, mensarii, coactores, and nummularii. The argentarii were money changers. The role of the mensarii was to help people through economic hardships, the coactores were hired to collect money and give it to their employer, and the nummularii minted and tested currency. They offered credit systems

During the 1990s, marked by President Carlos Menem's policies of liberalization, Argentina's financial system saw a significant consolidation and strengthening, in large part through foreign investment. In addition to high reserve and capital-adequacy requirements, the Central Bank of Argentina maintained a repurchase agreement with a consortium of international banks to provide a $6,000

Banking in Australia is a central component of the country's financial system and one of the most concentrated banking sectors in the world. As of 2025 the sector contributes 7.5% of GDP and employs 450,000 people.

Banking in Bhutan, a small country in East Asia, is an industry that has grown slowly as the country has pursued modernization. The country has a vibrant informal culture of finance which only weakly integrates formal financial services.

The banking sector of Canada is a large component of the nation's private sector and the broader Canadian economy. It is dominated by a small number of large banks, with the six largest combining for 93% of the banking assets. The two largest, the Royal Bank of Canada and the Toronto Dominion Bank are among the world's 25 largest banks. It has been considered to be one of the safest and

Banking in Egypt is regulated by the Central Bank of Egypt. Egypt’s banking sector has undergone major reforms since the 1990s, resulting in a liberalized and modernized system aligned with international standards. Financial inclusion has expanded, with 74.8% of Egyptians aged 15 and above using financial accounts, reaching 52 million users by 2024. Usage spans banks, Egypt Post, mobile

Modern banking in India began in the mid-18th century. Among the first banks were the Bank of Hindustan, which was established in 1770 and liquidated in 1829–32; and the General Bank of India, established in 1786 but failed in 1791.

The Banking sector in New Zealand dates back to the early days of European settlement in the country. Over the years, the banking industry has played a vital role in supporting economic growth and development, providing financial services to individuals, businesses, and the government. This article explores the significant milestones and transformations in the history of the New Zealand

Banking in Nicaragua refers to its financial system, which includes private and state-owned banks, microfinance institutions, financial cooperatives, and insurance providers. All institutions are regulated by the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (SIBOIF), which makes sure there compliance with domestic laws and international standards. The Nicaraguan banking sect

Panama has a substantial financial services sector. The sector grew up providing trade finance for trade passing through the Panama Canal, and later evolved into money laundering for the drug trade under Manuel Noriega.

Established by the Bank of South Sudan Act of 2011, the Central Bank of South Sudan is statutorily mandated to regulate the operations of all financial institutions in the country, including commercial banks. The Central Bank fulfills this mandate by issuing prudential guidelines and regulations as provided for under the Act. In theory, the licensed commercial banks are obligated to oper

The Banking Industry Architecture Network e.V. (BIAN) is an independent, member owned, not-for-profit association to establish and promote a common architectural framework for enabling banking interoperability. It was established in 2008.

The banking lobby refers to the representatives from various firms and organizations seeking favorable terms from governments for big banks and other financial service companies through lobbying and advocacy groups.

Banking software refers to computer systems used by financial institutions to manage and deliver banking services. These systems support functions such as account management, transaction processing, record keeping, and customer interactions across various channels. Banking software may include core baking systems as well as applications for online, mobile, and automated services. Its

Banks Board Bureau (BBB) (now replaced by Financial Services Institution Bureau since 2022) was an autonomous body of the Government of India tasked to search and select appropriate personages for the Board of Public Sector Banks, Public Sector Financial Institutions, and Public Sector Insurance Companies and recommend measures to improve Corporate Governance in these Institutions. In 20

"Banq" and "banc" are alternative spellings used in company names to evade legal restrictions on the use of the word 'bank' while maintaining a similar pronunciation. This practice is common in the financial services industry, particularly in the United States.

The Baring crisis or the Panic of 1890 was an acute recession in the United States. Although less serious than other panics of the era, it is the 19th century’s most famous sovereign debt crisis, and the 17th largest decline in U.S. stock market history.

The Barnett critique, named for the work of William A. Barnett in monetary economics, argues that internal inconsistency between the aggregation theory used to produce monetary aggregates and the economic theory used to produce the models within which the aggregates are used are responsible for the appearance of unstable demand and supply for money. The Barnett critique has produced a lo

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS, often shortened as Basel Committee) is a body that brings together bank supervisory authorities to set common prudential standards and policy. It relies on a permanent secretariat hosted by the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.

Basel III is a framework published by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in response to the deficiencies in financial regulation revealed by the 2008 financial crisis. It sets international standards and recommendations for bank capital requirements, stress tests, liquidity regulations, and leverage, with the goal of mitigating the risk of bank runs and bank failures. Base

A basis point (often abbreviated as bp, often pronounced as "bip" or "beep") is one hundredth of 1 percentage point. Changes of interest rates are often stated in basis points. For example, if an existing interest rate of 10 percent is increased by 1 basis point, the new interest rate would be 10.01 percent.

Basis risk in finance is the risk associated with imperfect hedging due to the variables or characteristics that affect the difference between the futures contract and the underlying "cash" position. It arises because of the difference between the price of the asset to be hedged and the price of the asset serving as the hedge before expiration, namely b = S - F. Barring idiosyncratic inf

A basket option is a financial derivative, more specifically an exotic option, whose underlying is a weighted sum or average of different assets that have been grouped together in a basket. A basket option is similar to an index option, where a number of stocks have been grouped together in an index and the option is based on the price of the index, but differs in that the members and we

A bearer instrument is a document that entitles the holder of the document to rights of ownership or title to the underlying property. In the case of shares (bearer shares) or bonds (bearer bonds), they are called bearer certificates. Unlike normal registered instruments, no record is kept of who owns bearer instruments or of transactions involving transfer of ownership, enabling the own

beenz.com was a website that allowed consumers to earn beenz, a type of online currency, for performing activities such as visiting a web site, shopping online, or logging on through an Internet service provider. The beenz e-currency could then be spent with participating online merchants.

Behavioural finance is the study of the influence of psychology on the behaviour of investors or financial analysts. It assumes that investors are not always rational, have limits to their self-control and are influenced by their own biases.

The Beirut Central District, historically named "Al-Balad", is the historical and geographical core of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Also called downtown Beirut, it has been described as the “vibrant financial, commercial, and administrative hub of the country.” It is thousands of years old, with a traditional focus on business, finance, culture, and leisure.

The Bethmann family (; BET-mahn) has been remarkable for the high proportion of its male members who succeeded at mercantile or financial endeavors. This family trait began in medieval northern Germany and continued with the Bethmann bank, which Johann Philipp Bethmann (1715–1793) and Simon Moritz Bethmann (1721–1782) founded in 1748 and soon catapulted into the foremost ranks of German

The Better Than Cash Alliance is a global partnership of 80 governments, companies, and International Organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to responsible digital payments to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

BharatPe is an Indian fintech company headquartered in New Delhi (Delhi NCR) that provides digital payment and financial services to small merchants and Grocery stores. Founded in 2018, the company offers unified QR code payment acceptance, point-of-sale (POS) devices, and merchant credit facilities.

The bias ratio is an indicator used in finance to analyze the returns of investment portfolios, and in performing due diligence.

Bibby Financial Services (BFS) is a multinational corporation that provides financial services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The bid–ask spread (also bid–offer or bid/ask and buy/sell in the case of a market maker) is the difference between the prices quoted (either by a single market maker or in a limit order book) for an immediate sale (ask) and an immediate purchase (bid) for stocks, futures contracts, options, or currency pairs in some auction scenario. The size of the bid–ask spread in a security is one m

The phrase Big Bang, used in reference to the sudden deregulation of financial markets, was coined to describe measures, including abolition of fixed commission charges and of the distinction between stockjobbers and stockbrokers on the London Stock Exchange and change from open outcry to screen-based electronic trading, effected by UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1986.

Big Five is the name colloquially given to the five largest banks that dominate the banking industry of Canada: Bank of Montreal (BMO), Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), and Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD).

BILL Holdings, Inc. is an American company based in San Jose, California, that provides automated, cloud-based software for financial operations for small businesses in the United States. A white-labeled, end-to-end payments automation platform, Bill.com Connect is offered to financial institutions as part of their single sign-on online business banking ecosystem.

The Bills of Exchange Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 61) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that codified the law relating to bills of exchange. Bills of exchange are widely used to finance trade and, when discounted with a financial institution, to obtain credit.

A binary option is a financial exotic option in which the payoff is either some fixed monetary amount or nothing at all. The two main types of binary options are the cash-or-nothing binary option and the asset-or-nothing binary option. The former pays some fixed amount of cash if the option expires in-the-money while the latter pays the value of the underlying security. They are also cal

In 2013, Welsh computer engineer James Howells mistakenly disposed of a laptop hard drive containing the private key for 8,000 Bitcoin in the Docksway landfill in Newport, Wales. Howells subsequently assembled a team of specialists and secured funding to excavate the site, but Newport City Council refused permission, citing galvanic corrosion of the device and health concerns of city re

bitFlyer is a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Tokyo. It was founded in 2014 and is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan.

Bitget is a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2018.

Bitwala is a Berlin-based cryptocurrency financial services company offering a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet, a Visa debit card, crypto trading, and crypto-backed loans. The company was founded in 2015 by Jörg von Minckwitz, Jan Goslicki, and Benjamin P. Jones. After operating briefly under the name Nuri from 2021 to 2022, the company returned to the Bitwala brand in late 2023 following

bKash Limited (Bengali: বিকাশ d/b/a: bKash) is a mobile financial service (MFS) in Bangladesh operating under the authority of Bangladesh Bank as a subsidiary of BRAC Bank PLC. This mobile financial service company started as a joint venture between BRAC Bank PLC, and Money in Motion LLC.

The Black–Scholes or Black–Scholes–Merton model is a mathematical model for the dynamics of a financial market containing derivative investment instruments. From the parabolic partial differential equation in the model, known as the Black–Scholes equation, one can deduce the Black–Scholes formula, which gives a theoretical estimate of the price of European-style options and shows that t

A block trade is a high-volume transaction in a security that is privately negotiated and executed outside of the open market for that security. Major broker-dealers often provide "block trading" services—sometimes known as "upstairs trading desks"—to their institutional clients. In the United States and Canada a block trade is usually at least 10,000 shares of a stock or $100,000 of bo

Block, Inc. (formerly Square, Inc.) is an American technology company and financial services provider for consumers and merchants. Founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey, it is the U.S. market leader in point-of-sale systems. As of 2024, Block has 57 million users and 4 million sellers, processing $241 billion in payments annually.

A blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records (blocks) that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree, where data nodes are represented by leaves). Since each block contains information about the previous block, they e

Blockchain analysis is the process of inspecting, identifying, clustering, modeling and visually representing data on a cryptographic distributed ledger known as a blockchain. The goal of blockchain analysis is to discover useful information about different actors transacting in cryptocurrency. Analysis of public blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum is typically conducted by private

Blockchain.com (formerly Blockchain.info) is a cryptocurrency financial services company. The company began as the first Bitcoin blockchain explorer in 2011 and later created a cryptocurrency wallet that accounted for 28% of bitcoin transactions between 2012 and 2020. It also operates a cryptocurrency brokerage and provides institutional markets lending business and data, charts, and ana

Boaz Ronald Weinstein (born 1973) is an American hedge fund manager and founder of Saba Capital Management. He rose to prominence at Deutsche Bank in the early and mid 2000s with his credit default swap and capital structure arbitrage trading strategies. He then formed a proprietary trading group within Deutsche Bank. After leaving the bank in 2009, Weinstein started Saba Capital Managem

In business, a boiler room is an outbound call center selling questionable investments by telephone. It usually refers to a room where salespeople work using unfair, dishonest sales tactics, sometimes selling penny stocks or private placements or committing outright stock fraud. A common boiler room tactic is the use of falsified and bolstered information in combination with verified com

A bond fund or debt fund is a fund that invests in bonds, or other debt securities. Bond funds can be contrasted with stock funds and money funds. Bond funds typically pay periodic dividends that include interest payments on the fund's underlying securities plus periodic realized capital appreciation. Bond funds typically pay higher dividends than CDs and money market accounts. Most bon

The bond market (also debt market or credit market) is a financial market in which participants can issue new debt, known as the primary market, or buy and sell debt securities, known as the secondary market. This is usually in the form of bonds, but it may include notes, bills, and so on for public and private expenditures. The bond market has largely been dominated by the United States

Bond valuation is the process of estimating the fair value of a bond. In the prevalent present-value approach, the value equals the sum of expected cash flows discounted at appropriate rates.

A bond vigilante is a bond market investor who protests against monetary or fiscal policies considered inflationary by selling bonds, thus increasing yields. The term was coined by Ed Yardeni in the 1980s.

Bonifacio Global City (BGC), also known as Global City or The Fort, is a 240-hectare mixed-use estate and central business district located in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, Philippines. It is now the home of the Philippine Stock Exchange, the national stock exchange as well as several multinational corporations in the country. Some of the tallest buildings in the country are located in BGC suc

Book building is a systematic process of generating, capturing, and recording investor demand for shares. Usually, the issuer appoints a major investment bank to act as a major securities underwriter or bookrunner.

Börse Stuttgart is the sixth largest exchange group in Europe. It has strategic pillars in the capital markets business as well as in the digital and cryptocurrency business. Börse Stuttgart Group employs around 700 people at its locations in Stuttgart, Berlin, Frankfurt, Ljubljana, Milan, Madrid, Stockholm, and Zürich and holds a total of 18 licences from regulatory authorities in Germa

Bosna Bank International d.d. Sarajevo, or simply BBI Banka, is a commercial bank serving Bosnia and Herzegovina headquartered in Sarajevo.

A bought out deal is a method of offering company shares to the general public through a sponsor or underwriter (a bank, financial institution, or an individual). The securities are listed in one or more stock exchanges within a time frame mutually agreed upon by the company and the sponsor. This option saves the issuing company the costs and time involved in a public issue. The cost of

A boutique investment bank is a small investment bank that specializes in at least one aspect of investment banking, generally corporate finance, although some banks' strengths are retail in nature, such as Charles Schwab. Of those involved in corporate finance, capital raising, mergers and acquisitions and restructuring and reorganizations are their primary activities. Boutiques usually

In finance, box office futures is a type of futures contract in which investors speculate on upcoming movies based on their predicted performance.

BPAY (BPAY Group Holding Pty Ltd) is an Australian electronic bill payment SaaS company which facilitates payments made through a financial institution's online, mobile or telephone banking facility to organisations which are registered BPAY billers.

A branch, banking center or financial center is a retail location where a bank, credit union, or other financial institution (including a brokerage firm) offers a wide array of face-to-face and automated services to its customers.

The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States, to regulate what would be the international monetary and financial order after the conclusion of World War II.

The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial relations among 44 countries, including the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, European countries, and Australia, after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement until the Jamaica Accords in 1976. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary r

A bridge bank is an institution created by a national regulator or central bank to operate a failed bank until a buyer can be found.

British banking law refers to banking law in the United Kingdom, to control the activities of banks.

In financial services, a broker-dealer is a natural person, company or other organization that engages in the business of trading securities for its own account or on behalf of its customers. Broker-dealers are at the heart of the securities and derivatives trading process.

A bucket shop is a business that allows gambling based on the prices of stocks or commodities. A 1906 U.S. Supreme Court ruling defined a bucket shop as "an establishment, nominally for the transaction of a stock exchange business, or business of similar character, but really for the registration of bets, or wagers, usually for small amounts, on the rise or fall of the prices of stocks,

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the federal parliament (Bundestag) and all state parliaments (Landtage) have established Budget Committees (Haushaltsausschuss), standing parliamentary committees generally responsible for deliberations on the budget act and for parliamentary oversight of budget execution.

The Buffett indicator (or the Buffett metric, or the Market capitalization-to-GDP ratio) is a valuation multiple used to assess how expensive or cheap the aggregate stock market is at a given point in time. It was proposed as a metric by investor Warren Buffett in 2001, who called it "probably the best single measure of where valuations stand at any given moment", and its modern form co

Bulgarian Development Bank (Bulgarian: Българска банка за развитие, Balgarska banka za razvitie) (BDB) is a leading Bulgarian development and commercial bank with headquarters in Sofia. It is one of the largest development institutions in Southeast Europe that provides financing and professional advising for the purposes of development. It is the largest Bulgarian financing facility prov

In finance, a bull is a speculator in a stock market who buys a holding in a stock in the expectation that, in the very short-term, it will rise in value, whereupon they will sell the stock to make a quick profit on the transaction. Strictly speaking, the term applies to speculators who borrow money to fund such a purchase, and are thus under great pressure to complete the transaction be