Industry WIKI

Solaris SE is a credit institution licensed in Germany. Known as Solarisbank AG until November 2022, it is headquartered in Berlin and has branches in London, Paris, Milan, Madrid and Vilnius.

SolarWinds Corporation is an American company that develops software for businesses to help monitor and manage their networks, systems, and information technology infrastructure. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with sales and product development offices in a number of locations in the United States and several other countries.

Solidarity lending is a lending practice where small groups borrow collectively and group members encourage one another to repay. It is an important building block of microfinance.

Solvency II Directive 2009 (2009/138/EC) is a Directive in European Union law that codifies and harmonises the EU insurance regulation. Primarily this concerns the amount of capital that EU insurance companies must hold to reduce the risk of insolvency.

SonicWall Inc. is an American cybersecurity company that sells a range of Internet appliances primarily directed at content control and network security. These include devices providing services for network firewalls, unified threat management (UTM), virtual private networks (VPNs), virtual firewalls, SD-WAN, cloud security and anti-spam for email. The company also markets information su

The Sortino ratio measures the risk-adjusted return of an investment asset, portfolio, or strategy. It is a modification of the Sharpe ratio but penalizes only those returns falling below a user-specified target or required rate of return, while the Sharpe ratio penalizes both upside and downside variance equally. Though both ratios measure an investment's risk-adjusted return, they do s

The Souk Al-Manakh stock market crash was the 1982 stock market crash of Kuwait's unofficial stock market, the Souk Al-Manakh (Arabic: سوق المناخ). The Al-Manakh market was housed in an air-conditioned parking garage in the historic area of Jibla, Kuwait City. The market was specialized in highly speculative and unregulated non-Kuwaiti companies. At its peak, its market capitalization wa

Sweet Tomatoes, which operated as Souplantation ( SOO-plan-TAY-shən) in Southern California, is a United States–based chain of all-you-can-eat buffet-style restaurants. The first location opened in 1978 in San Diego, California, where the company was headquartered. The company was incorporated as Garden Fresh Corp. in 1983. The company went public in 1995 but was taken private in 2004. T

The South African Mint is responsible for minting all coins of the South African rand on behalf of its owner, the South African Reserve Bank. Located in Centurion, Gauteng near South Africa's administrative capital Pretoria, the mint manufactures coins and planchets for both domestic and international markets.

Sovereign funds of China are mechanisms through which the Chinese state acts as a market participant with the goals of supporting key domestic economic sectors, advancing strategic interests internationally, and diversifying its foreign exchange reserves.

A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), or sovereign investment fund, is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as private equity funds or hedge funds. Sovereign wealth funds invest globally. Most SWFs are funded by revenues from commodity exports or from foreign exchange reser

The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (also SWF Institute, or simply SWFI) is an American corporation that analyzes public asset owners such as sovereign wealth funds and other long-term governmental investors. Initially focused solely on sovereign wealth funds, the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute has branched out to cover all types of public institutional investors. The institute sells i

The Soviet ruble or rouble (; Russian: рубль, romanized: rubl', IPA: [rublʲ]) was the currency of the Soviet Union. It was introduced in 1922 and replaced the Imperial Russian ruble. One ruble was divided into 100 kopecks (копейка, pl. копейки – kopeyka, kopeyki). Soviet banknotes and coins were produced by Goznak in Moscow and Leningrad.

A Spahn tax is a type of currency transaction tax that is meant to be used for the purpose of controlling exchange-rate volatility. This idea was proposed by Paul Bernd Spahn in 1995.

Spanish autonomous communities funding system is the set of funds that each Spanish autonomous community administration is given to exert their competencies as the Spanish Constitution of 1978 obliges (article 156.1), following the solidarity principle (usually called as interterritorial solidarity) and being coordinated by the Ministry of the Treasury. This system is part of the Spanish

A special dividend is a payment made by a company to its shareholders, that the company declares to be separate from the typical recurring dividend cycle, if any, for the company.

A special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a blank check company or a blind-pool stock offering, is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring (or merging with) a private company, thus taking the private company public through a procedure which requires fewer regulatory filings and has fewer safeguards for investors than the initial pu

In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, goods, or real estate) with the hope that that asset will become more valuable in a brief amount of time.

In economics, a speculative attack is a precipitous selling of untrustworthy assets by previously inactive speculators and the corresponding acquisition of some valuable assets (currencies, gold). The first model of a speculative attack was contained in a 1975 discussion paper on the gold market by Stephen Salant and Dale Henderson at the Federal Reserve Board. Paul Krugman, who visited

Speedpass was a keychain radio-frequency identification (RFID) device introduced in 1997 by Mobil (which merged with Exxon to become ExxonMobil in 1999) for electronic payment. It was originally developed by Verifone. By 2004, more than seven million people possessed Speedpass tags, which could be used at approximately 10,000 Exxon, Mobil and Esso gas stations worldwide.

A spendthrift (also profligate or prodigal) is someone who is extravagant and recklessly wasteful with money, often to a point where the spending climbs well beyond their means. Spendthrift derives from an obsolete sense of the word thrift to mean prosperity rather than frugality, so a "spendthrift" is one who has spent their prosperity.

The System for Transfer of Financial Messages (Russian: Система передачи финансовых сообщений, romanized: Sistema peredachi finansovykh soobscheniy), abbreviated SPFS (Russian: СПФС), is a Russian equivalent of the SWIFT financial transfer system, developed by the Central Bank of Russia. The system has been in development since 2014, when the United States government threatened to discon

A split capital investment trust (split) is a type of investment trust which issues different classes of share to give the investor a choice of shares to match their needs. Most splits have a limited life determined at launch known as the wind-up date. Typically the life of a split capital trust is five to ten years.

Spoonity is a Canadian business-to-business (B2B) software as a service (SaaS) company that develops digital loyalty programs, marketing automation tools, and payment integration systems for the quick-service restaurant (QSR), retail, and hospitality industries. Headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, the company operates a cloud-based platform that connects point of sale (POS) transaction dat

Sports Authority, Inc. (formerly The Sports Authority) was an American sports retailer based in Englewood, Colorado. At its peak, Sports Authority operated 463 stores in 45 states and Puerto Rico. The company's website was on the GSI Commerce platform and supported the retail stores as well as other multi-channel programs. A joint venture with ÆON Co., Ltd., operates "Sports Authority" s

The spot market or cash market is a public financial market in which financial instruments or commodities are traded for immediate delivery. It contrasts with a futures market, in which delivery is due at a later date. In a spot market, settlement normally happens in T+2 working days, i.e., delivery of cash and commodity must be done after two working days of the trade date. A spot mar

Squarepoint Capital ("Squarepoint") is a global investment management firm headquartered in New York City & London. The firm is known for its quantitative finance approach to investing. Squarepoint has additional offices in Bangalore, Boston, Dubai, Geneva, Hong Kong, Houston, Jersey, London, Madrid, Montreal, New York, Paris, Singapore, and Zug.

Squarespace, Inc. is an American website building, hosting, and domain registration company based in New York City. It provides software as a service for website building, e-commerce, domain registration, marketing, and online scheduling. The platform allows users to use pre-built website templates, drag-and-drop editing, and artificial intelligence-powered design tools.

A squeeze-out or squeezeout, sometimes synonymous with freeze-out, is the compulsory sale of the shares of minority shareholders of a joint-stock company for which they receive a fair cash compensation.

A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that aims to maintain a stable value relative to a specified asset, a pool or basket of assets. The specified asset might refer to fiat currency, commodity, or other cryptocurrencies. Despite the name, stablecoins are not necessarily stable. Stablecoins rely on stabilization tools such as reserve assets or algorithms that match supply and demand

Standard Chartered PLC is a British multinational bank with operations in wealth management, corporate and investment banking, and treasury services.

In economics, standard of deferred payment is a function of money. It is the function of being a widely accepted way to value a debt, thereby allowing goods and services to be acquired now and paid for in the future.

The standardized approach for counterparty credit risk (SA-CCR) is the capital requirement framework under Basel III addressing counterparty risk for derivative trades.

The term standardized approach (or standardised approach) refers to a set of credit risk measurement techniques proposed under Basel II, which sets capital adequacy rules for banking institutions.

In the context of operational risk, the standardized approach or standardised approach is a set of operational risk measurement techniques proposed under Basel II capital adequacy rules for banking institutions.

Stanley Freeman Druckenmiller (born June 14, 1953) is an American billionaire investor, philanthropist and former hedge fund manager. He is the former chairman and president of Duquesne Capital, which he founded in 1981. He closed the fund in August 2010, at which time it had over $12 billion in assets. From 1988 to 2000, he managed money for George Soros as the lead portfolio manager fo

Stanley Fischer (Hebrew: סטנלי פישר; October 15, 1943 – May 31, 2025) was an American and Israeli economist who served as the 20th vice chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2017. Fischer previously served as the 8th governor of the Bank of Israel from 2005 to 2013. Born in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), he held dual citizenship in Israel and the United States. He previously served

Staples Inc. is an American office supply retail company headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts.

StarkWare Industries is an Israeli software company that specializes in cryptography. It develops zero-knowledge proof technology that compresses information to address the scalability problem of the blockchain, and works on the Ethereum platform.

A startup or start-up is a company or project typically undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to go public, startups are new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo-founder. At the early stages, startups face signifi

The State Bank Archives and Museum is an initiative to document and preserve the history of banking in the Indian subcontinent. The archive and museum opened on 13 May 2007 in the State Bank of India (SBI) headquarters in Kolkata.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP; Urdu: بینک دولت پاکستان, romanised: Bank Daulat Pakistan) is the central bank of Pakistan. Its headquarters are located in Karachi, the financial capital of the country. The State Bank of Pakistan Act 1956, with subsequent amendments, forms the basis of its operations today. Its constitution, as originally laid down in the State Bank of Pakistan Order 194

State Street Corporation is an American multinational financial services and bank holding company headquartered at One Congress Street in Boston. It is the second-oldest continuously operating U.S. bank, tracing its roots to Union Bank, chartered in 1792. As of the third quarter of 2025, State Street is one of the world's largest asset managers and custodians, with approximately US$5.4 t

State Street Investment Management (formerly State Street Global Advisors) is the asset management arm of State Street Corporation founded in 1978 and the world's fourth largest asset manager, with nearly US$4.1 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2023. State Street Investment Management operates as a subsidiary of State Street Bank and Trust Company.

In finance, statistical arbitrage (Stat Arb or StatArb) is a class of short-term financial trading strategies that employ mean reversion models involving broadly diversified portfolios of securities (hundreds to thousands) held for short periods of time (generally seconds to days). These strategies are supported by substantial mathematical, computational, and trading platforms.

Statistical finance is the application of econophysics to financial markets. Instead of the normative roots of finance, it uses a positivist framework. It includes exemplars from statistical physics with an emphasis on emergent or collective properties of financial markets. Empirically observed stylized facts are the starting point for this approach to understanding financial markets.

Stephen L. Norris is an American businessman, investor, and financier. He was one of the co-founders of The Carlyle Group, an American private equity firm. He was later owner and founder of Stephen Norris Capital Partners and the chairman of Gulf Capital Partners.

Stephen Gerard Pagliuca (born January 16, 1955) is an American private equity investor, co-chairman of Bain Capital, and owner of Atalanta of Italian Serie A association football league. He is also former co-owner of the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

In macroeconomics, sterilization is action taken by a country's central bank to counter the effects on the money supply caused by a balance of payments surplus or deficit.

The sterling area (or sterling bloc, legally scheduled territories) was a group of countries that either adopted or pegged their currencies to the pound sterling.

Steven A. Cohen (born June 11, 1956) is an American hedge fund manager and owner of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB). He is the founder of Point72 Asset Management and S.A.C. Capital Advisors. In 2013, S.A.C. Capital Advisors pleaded guilty to wire and securities fraud to insider trading and paid $1.8 billion in fines. In 2020, Cohen acquired the Mets from Fred Wilpon for

Stephen Andrew Feinberg (born March 29, 1960) is an American billionaire businessman and government official who has served as the 36th United States deputy secretary of defense since 2025. He is the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Cerberus Capital Management. Feinberg was also chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board from 2018 to 2021, during the first

Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporation in proportion to the total number of shares. This typically entitles the shareholder (stockholder) to that fraction of the company's earnings, proceeds from liquidat

In corporate law, a stock certificate (also known as certificate of stock or share certificate) is a legal document that certifies the legal interest (a bundle of several legal rights) of ownership of a specific number of shares (or, under Article 8 of the Uniform Commercial Code in the United States, a securities entitlement or pro rata share of a fungible bulk) or stock in a corporatio

Stock dilution, also known as equity dilution, is the decrease in existing shareholders' ownership percentage of a company as a result of the company issuing new equity. New equity increases the total shares outstanding which has a dilutive effect on the ownership percentage of existing shareholders. This increase in the number of shares outstanding can result from a primary market off

A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for the issue and redemption of such securities and instruments and capital events including the payment of income and dividends. Securities traded on a stock

A stock fund, or equity fund, is a fund that invests in stocks, also called equity securities. Stock funds can be contrasted with bond funds and money funds. Fund assets are typically mainly in stock, with some amount of cash, which is generally quite small, as opposed to bonds, notes, or other securities. This may be a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund. The objective of an equity fun

A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called as shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include securities listed on a public stock exchange as well as stock that is only traded privately, such as shares of private companies that are sold to investors through equity crowdfunding platforms. Invest

Stock market cycles are proposed patterns that proponents argue may exist in stock markets. Many such cycles have been proposed, such as tying stock market changes to political leadership, or fluctuations in commodity prices. Some stock market designs are universally recognized (e.g., rotations between the dominance of value investing or growth stocks). However, many academics and profe

In finance, a stock market index or stock index is an index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market performance.

Stock market prediction is the act of trying to determine the future value of a company stock or other financial instrument traded on an exchange. The successful prediction of a stock's future price could yield significant profit. The efficient market hypothesis suggests that stock prices reflect all currently available information and any price changes that are not based on newly reveal

A stock split or stock divide increases the number of shares in a company. For example, after a 2-for-1 split, each investor will own double the number of shares, and each share will be worth half as much. A stock split causes a decrease of market price of individual shares, but does not change the total market capitalization of the company: stock dilution does not occur.

A stock trader or equity trader or share trader, also called a stock investor, is a person or company involved in trading stocks and attempting to profit from the purchase and sale of those securities. Stock traders may be an investor, agent, hedger, arbitrageur, speculator, or stockbroker. Such equity trading in large publicly traded companies may be through a stock exchange. Stock shar

Stock valuation is the method of calculating theoretical values of companies and their stocks. The main use of these methods is to predict future market prices, or more generally, potential market prices, and thus to profit from price movement – stocks that are judged undervalued (with respect to their theoretical value) are bought, while stocks that are judged overvalued are sold, in th

A stockbroker is an individual or company that buys and sells stocks and other investments for a financial market participant in return for a commission, markup, or fee. In most countries they are regulated as a broker or broker-dealer and may need to hold a relevant license and may be a member of a stock exchange. They generally act as a financial adviser and investment manager. In thi

Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (StockHolding) was an Indian custodian and depository participant, based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. StockHolding was established in 1986 as a public limited company and is a subsidiary of IFCI. StockHolding became a subsidiary of IFCI Limited on April 7, 2015, which is a Government Company. Being a subsidiary of a Government Company, StockHolding a

StockX is an online marketplace and clothing reseller, primarily of sneakers. Since November 2020, it has also opened up to electronic products such as game consoles, smartphones and computer hardware. The Detroit-based company was founded by Dan Gilbert, Josh Luber, Greg Schwartz, and Chris Kaufman in 2015–2016. StockX has more than 800 employees in Downtown Detroit. StockX currently ha

A store of value is any commodity or asset that would normally retain purchasing power into the future and is the function of the asset that can be saved, retrieved and exchanged at a later time, and be predictably useful when retrieved.

A stored-value card (SVC) or cash card is a payment card with a monetary value stored on the card itself, not in an external account maintained by a financial institution. This means no network access is required by the payment collection terminals as funds can be withdrawn and deposited straight from the card. Like cash, payment cards can be used anonymously as the person holding the ca

Strategic financial management is the study of finance with a long term view considering the strategic goals of the enterprise. Financial management is sometimes referred to as "Strategic Financial Management" to give it an increased frame of reference.

Stratus Technologies, Inc. is a major producer of fault tolerant computer servers and software. The company was founded in 1980 as Stratus Computer, Inc. in Natick, Massachusetts, and adopted its present name in 1999. The current CEO and president is Dave Laurello. The founder of Stratus was Bill Foster, who was CEO until Stratus was acquired by Ascend Communications in 1999. Prior to 20

Streamline refinancing is a mortgage refinancing process in the United States for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages that reuses the original loan's paperwork allowing quicker refinancing. The program was introduced by the FHA as a way to speed up the home refinancing process. By reusing the original loan's paperwork, the process to refinance a home was reduced from a few mo

In finance, a stress test is an analysis or simulation designed to determine the ability of a given financial instrument or financial institution to deal with an economic crisis. Instead of doing financial projection on a "best estimate" basis, a company or its regulators may do stress testing where they look at how robust a financial instrument is in certain crashes, a form of scenario

In finance, the strike price (or exercise price) of an option is a fixed price at which the owner of the option can buy (in the case of a call), or sell (in the case of a put), the underlying security or commodity. The strike price may be set by reference to the spot price, which is the market price of the underlying security or commodity on the day an option is taken out. Alternatively,

Structured finance is a sector of finance and financial law concerned with managing leverage and risk. Strategies may involve off-balance-sheet accounting or the use of financial instruments to manage credit risk and facilitate capital flows.

A structured investment vehicle (SIV) is a non-bank financial institution established to earn a credit spread between the longer-term assets held in its portfolio and the shorter-term liabilities it issues. They are simple credit spread lenders, frequently "lending" by investing in securitizations, but also by investing in corporate bonds and funding by issuing commercial paper and medi

A structured product, also known as a market-linked investment, is a pre-packaged structured finance investment strategy based on a single security, a basket of securities, options, indices, commodities, debt issuance or foreign currencies, and to a lesser extent, derivatives.

A structured settlement factoring transaction means a transfer of structured settlement payment rights (including portions of structured settlement payments) made for consideration by means of sale, assignment, pledge, or other form of encumbrance or alienation for consideration. In order for such transfer to be approved, the transfer must comply with Internal Revenue Code section 5891 a

A student loan is a type of loan designed to help students pay for tertiary education and the associated fees, such as tuition, books and supplies, and living expenses. It may differ from other types of loans in the fact that the interest rate may be substantially lower and the repayment schedule may be deferred while the student is still in school. It also differs in many countries in t

Style drift occurs when a mutual fund's actual and declared investment style differs.

Style investing is an investment approach in which securities are grouped into categories, and portfolio allocation is based on selection among "styles" rather than among individual securities.

In finance, subordinated debt (also known as subordinated loan, subordinated bond, subordinated debenture or junior debt) is debt which ranks after other debts if a company falls into liquidation or bankruptcy.

Subvertising (a portmanteau of subvert and advertising) is the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. The cultural critic Mark Dery coined the term in 1991. Subvertisements are anti-ads that deflect advertising's attempts to turn the people's attention in a given direction. According to author Naomi Klein, subvertising offers a way of speaking ba

The suggestion box is used for collecting slips of paper with input from customers and patrons of a particular organization. Suggestion boxes may also exist internally, within an organization, such as means for garnering employee opinion.

Sukuk (Arabic: صكوك, romanized: ṣukūk; plural of Arabic: صك, romanized: ṣakk, lit. 'legal instrument, deed, cheque') is the Arabic name for financial certificates, also commonly referred to as "sharia compliant" bonds.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (株式会社三井住友銀行, Kabushiki-gaisha Mitsui Sumitomo Ginkō; SMBC) is a Japanese multinational banking financial services institution owned by the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, which is also known as the SMBC Group. It is headquartered in the same building as SMBC Group in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan.

Sumo Logic, Inc. is a cloud-based data analytics company, focusing on cybersecurity, security analytics and observability. It provides log management and analytics services based on artificial intelligence.

SumUp is a British financial technology company headquartered in London. SumUp’s primary product is an EMV card reader and a number of online payment and bank account system for merchants and businesses.

Sun Capital Partners, Inc., is an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts. Sun Capital was founded in 1995 by Marc J. Leder and Rodger Krouse, former classmates at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and investment bankers at Lehman Brothers.

SunGard was an American multinational company based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, which provided software and services to education, financial services, and public sector organizations. It was formed in 1983 as a spin-off of the computer services division of Sun Oil Company.

Supply chain finance (SCF), also known as supplier finance or reverse factoring, comprises a suite of financial solutions that aim to manage working capital and liquidity for businesses within a supply chain. These arrangements are typically initiated by a buyer to allow their suppliers to access funding for their accounts receivable at interest rates based on the buyer's credit rating,

A payment surcharge, also known as checkout fee, is an extra fee charged by a merchant when receiving a payment by cheque, credit card, charge card, debit card or an e-money account, but not cash, which at least covers the cost to the merchant of accepting that means of payment, such as the merchant service fee imposed by a credit card company. Retailers generally incur higher costs when

Surveillance capitalism is a concept in political economics which denotes the widespread collection and commodification of personal data by corporations. This phenomenon is distinct from government surveillance, although the two can be mutually reinforcing. The concept of surveillance capitalism, as described by Shoshana Zuboff, is driven by a profit-making incentive, and arose as advert

Sustainability brands are brands that undertake sustainable practises in the workings of their business and champion them.

Sustainability marketing myopia is a term used in sustainability marketing referring to a distortion stemming from the overlooking of socio-environmental attributes of a sustainable product or service at the expenses of customer benefits and values. Sustainability marketing is oriented towards the whole community, its social goals and the protection of the environment. The idea of sustai

Sustainable advertising addresses the carbon footprint and other negative environmental and social impacts associated with the production and distribution of advertising materials. A growing number of companies are making a commitment to the reduction of their environmental impact associated with advertising production and distribution.

According to PIMS (profit impact of marketing strategy), an important lever of business success is growth. Among 37 variables, growth is mentioned as one of the most important variables for success: market share, market growth, marketing expense to sales ratio or a strong market position.

Traditionally, market orientation (MO) focuses on microenvironment and the functional management of an organisation. However, contemporary organisations have widened their focus to incorporate more roles, functions and emphasis on the macro environment. Firms have been concerned with short run success and often not taken into account the long-run ecological, social and economic effects f

A sweepstake (also sweepstakes) is a type of contest in which a prize or prizes are awarded to winners selected by chance rather than skill. Sweepstakes have a long history in many countries, though they are regulated differently depending on jurisdiction. In some countries, such as the United States, sweepstakes must by law be free to enter, while in others, such as Australia, a purchas

The SWIFT ban against some Russian banks is one of several international sanctions against Russia imposed by the European Union and other western countries as a result of its invasion of Ukraine, aimed at weakening the country's economy to end the invasion by hindering Russian access to the SWIFT financial transaction processing system.