Industry WIKI

Active users is a software performance metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular software product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from users or visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and monthly).

AlpInvest Partners is a global private equity asset manager with over $85 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2024. The firm invests on behalf of more than 500 institutional investors from North America, Asia, Europe, South America and Africa.

António Mendo de Castel-Branco do Amaral Osório Borges (18 November 1949 – 25 August 2013) was a Portuguese economist and banker. He was also a Managing Director and International Adviser of Goldman Sachs.

In finance, an asset class is a group of marketable financial assets that have similar financial characteristics and behave similarly in the marketplace. These instruments can be distinguished as either having to do with real assets or having to do with financial assets. Often, assets within the same asset class are subject to the same laws and regulations; however, this is not always

The Bank of Amsterdam or Wisselbank (Dutch: Amsterdamsche Wisselbank, lit. 'Exchange Bank of Amsterdam') was an early bank, vouched for by the city of Amsterdam, and established in 1609. It was the first public bank to offer accounts not directly convertible to coin. As such, it has been described by some as the first true central bank, even though that view is not uniformly shared. The

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

In domestic and international commercial law, a beneficial owner is a natural person (or persons) who ultimately owns or controls an interest in a legal entity or arrangement, such as a company, trust, or foundation. Legal owners (i.e. owners of record), commonly described as registered owners, may hold those interests as beneficial owners or for the benefit of someone else, in which cas

Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) was a national Catholic healthcare system, with headquarters in Englewood, Colorado. CHI was a nonprofit, faith-based health system formed, in 1996, through the consolidation of three Catholic health systems. It was one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. In February 2019, CHI merged with Dignity Health, forming CommonSpirit Health.

The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program is a postgraduate professional certification offered internationally by the US-based CFA Institute (formerly the Association for Investment Management and Research, or AIMR) to investment and financial professionals. The program teaches a wide range of subjects relating to advanced investment analysis—including business analysis, statistics,

A chief risk officer (CRO), chief risk management officer (CRMO), or chief risk and compliance officer (CRCO), is an executive accountable for enabling the efficient and effective governance of significant risks, and related opportunities, to a business and its various segments. Risks are commonly categorized as strategic, reputational, operational, financial, or compliance-related. CROs

A company is a legal entity representing an association of legal persons with a shared objective, such as generating profit or benefiting society. Depending on the jurisdiction, companies can take on various forms, including voluntary associations, nonprofit organizations, business entities, financial entities, banks, and educational institutions. Companies have evolved to share common l

Consensys is a private blockchain software technology company founded by Joseph Lubin and based in Fort Worth.

A contingent convertible bond (CoCo), also known as an enhanced capital note (ECN), is a fixed-income instrument that is convertible into equity if a pre-specified trigger event occurs. The concept of CoCo has been particularly discussed in the context of crisis management in the banking industry. It has been also emerging as an alternative way for keeping solvency in the insurance indus

Country risk refers to the risk of investing or lending in a country, arising from possible changes in the business environment that may adversely affect operating profits or the value of assets in the country. For example, financial factors such as currency controls, devaluation or regulatory changes, or stability factors such as mass riots, civil war and other potential events contribu

A dividend is the distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-invested in the business (called retained earnings). The current year's profit as well as the retained earnings of previous years are available f

Double bottom line (abbreviated as DBL or 2BL) seeks to extend the conventional bottom line, which measures fiscal performance—financial profit or loss—by adding a second bottom line to measure a for-profit business's performance in terms of positive social impact. There is controversy about how to measure the double bottom line, especially since the use of the term "bottom line" implies

Energy Traders Europe or EFET (formerly the European Federation of Energy Traders) is a trade association of European energy traders in markets for wholesale electricity and gas. EFET advocates policies and regulatory measures which allow electricity and gas trading to develop freely while encouraging good risk management practices and responsible corporate governance. In its role as a s

Engine No. 1 is an American investment firm. It attracted attention with its campaign to replace four members of ExxonMobil's board of directors despite owning only 0.02% of the company's shares. The firm describes its investment approach as "active ownership", as it prefers to work with management instead of launching activist campaigns.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is shorthand for an investing principle that prioritizes environmental issues, social issues, and corporate governance. Investing with ESG considerations is sometimes referred to as responsible investing or, in more proactive cases, impact investing. The term is also frequently used interchangeably with corporate social responsibility and susta

The Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) is an international multilateral financial organisation aiming to contribute to the formation and development of the market economy of the Bank's member countries, their economic growth and expansion of trade and economic ties between them through investment activities. The major share of projects in the EDB's portfolio: projects with an integration ef

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) was established in 2010 in the United States to investigate the causes of the 2008 financial crisis. The commission, led by Phil Angelides, held public hearings, gathered testimony from hundreds, and released its report in January 2011.

Financial econometrics is the application of statistical methods to financial data. Financial econometrics is a branch of financial economics, in the field of economics. Areas of study include capital markets, financial institutions, corporate finance and corporate governance. Topics often revolve around asset valuation of individual stocks, bonds, derivatives, currencies and other fina

Financial integration is a phenomenon in which financial markets in neighboring, regional and/or global economies are closely linked together. Various forms of actual financial integration include: Information sharing among financial institutions; sharing of best practices among financial institutions; sharing of cutting edge technologies (through licensing) among financial institutions;

Financial sector development in developing countries and emerging markets is part of the private sector development strategy to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty.

Financialization (or financialisation in British English) is a term sometimes used to describe the development of financial capitalism during the period from 1980 to the present, in which debt-to-equity ratios increased and financial services accounted for an increasing share of national income relative to other sectors.

Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gather money for nonprofit organizations, it is sometimes used to refer to the identification and solicitation of investors or other sources of capit

Gauweiler and Others v Deutscher Bundestag (2015) C-62/14 is an EU law case relevant for banking law which approved outright monetary transactions that were needed to save the Eurozone from financial turmoil.

The Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) is an independent association of 'values-based banks' with a shared mission to use finance to deliver environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) positive outcomes. The GABV consists of over 70 member banks, credit unions and microfinance institutions. Its headquarters are in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

A green bond is a fixed-income financial instrument (bond) which is used to fund projects that have positive environmental benefits. When referring to climate change mitigation projects they are also known as climate bonds. Green bonds follow the Green Bond Principles stated by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), and the proceeds from the issuance of which are to be used

Guy Patrick Wyser-Pratte (born June 21, 1940 in Vichy, France) is a Franco-American financial investor, risk arbitrageur and shareholder activist. He joined the Marine Corps before eventually moving into finance. He is the head of New York-based Wyser-Pratte & Co., an investment fund with some $500 million in assets under management founded in 1991, focused on "undervalued European equi

Incorporation is the formation of a new corporate body. The body may be a business corporation, a nonprofit organization, a sports club, or similar. The term is also applied in local government to the formation of a new city or town and this is called a municipal corporation.

An institutional investor is an entity that pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linked companies, insurers, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, charities, hedge funds, real estate investment trusts, investment advisors, endowments, a

Investor relations (IR) is a "strategic management responsibility that is capable of integrating finance, communication, marketing and securities law compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company's securities achieving fair valuation." as defined by National Inv

Israel's Anti-Concentration Law, formally “A Law for Promotion of Competition and Reduction of Concentration”, is a law passed in December 2013 that seeks to reduce the size of existing large Israeli business groups organized in a pyramidal holding structures, separate financial holdings from non-financial holdings and prevent new pyramids from being formed.

John C. Coffee Jr. (born November 15, 1944) is the Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law and director of the Center on Corporate Governance at Columbia Law School.

Jon Paul Ruggles (born November 28, 1973) is an American executive known for founding Monroe Energy and creating an internal trading house for Delta Air Lines that earned $420 million in trading profits in its first year. According to CNBC, Delta hired Ruggles as vice-president of fuel in 2011 to help right a fuel-hedge book that had been losing the airline money. He managed to generate

Jurisdictional arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of discrepancies between competing legal jurisdictions. It takes its name from arbitrage, the practice in finance of purchasing a good at a lower price in one market and selling it at a higher price in another. Just as in financial arbitrage, the attractiveness of jurisdiction arbitrage depends largely on its transaction costs,

The Liikanen Report or "Report of the European Commission’s High-level Expert Group on Bank Structural Reform" (known as the "Liikanen Group") is a set of recommendations published in October 2012 by a group of experts led by Erkki Liikanen, governor of the Bank of Finland and ECB council member. On 3 July 2013, by large majority the European Parliament adopted an own initiative report c

This is a list of business journals, including journals in business, management, marketing, finance, accounting, international business, organizational studies, entrepreneurship, and related fields.

The Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) is a U.S.-based national securities exchange headquartered in New York City. It was created with the intent to create long-term corporate governance and investment practices. Companies listing on LTSE are required to adopt governance standards that emphasize long-term business performance and stakeholder commitments. The exchange has received financial

A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management and leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 1980s business economics and most frequently refer to leveraged transactions where managers take a company private. These transactions, while originat

MarketAxess Holdings Inc., headquartered in New York City, operates electronic trading platforms used to trade bonds and other fixed income products. It has approximately 2,100 customers, all of which are either institutional investors (91.3% of 2025 volume) or broker-dealers (8.7% of 2025 volume).

A Master of Finance is a professional master's degree awarded by higher education institutions preparing students for careers in finance.

Minority discount is an economic concept reflecting the notion that a partial ownership interest may be worth less than its proportional share of the total business. The concept applies to equities with voting power because the size of voting position provides additional benefits or drawbacks. For example, ownership of a 51% share in the business is usually worth more than 51% of its equ

In finance, model risk is the risk of loss resulting from using insufficiently accurate models to make decisions, originally and frequently in the context of valuing financial securities.

The MSCI KLD 400 Social Index was launched in 1990 and is designed to help socially conscious investors weigh social and environmental factors in their investment choices.

The National Competitiveness Report of Armenia (ACR) is an annual publication of EV Consulting and the Economy and Values Research Center (a partner institute of the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Network) that aims to encourage and foster in-depth dialogue and analysis on improving Armenia's competitiveness.

Nelson Peltz (born June 24, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is a founding partner, together with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, of Trian Partners, an alternative investment management fund based in New York. He is a former director of Heinz, Mondelēz International, and Ingersoll Rand and a former CEO of Triangle Industries.

A non-performing loan (NPL) or non-performing asset (NPA) is a bank loan that is subject to late repayment or is unlikely to be repaid by the borrower in full. Non-performing loans represent a major challenge for the banking sector, as they reduce profitability. They are often claimed to prevent banks from lending more to businesses and consumers, which in turn slows economic growth, alt

Organizational economics (also referred to as economics of organization) involves the use of economic logic and methods to understand the existence, nature, design, and performance of organizations, especially managed ones.

A performance indicator or key performance indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement used to evaluate the success of an organization, activity, project, or process in achieving defined objectives. KPIs provide a focus for strategic and operational improvement, support evidence-based decision-making, and help organizations identify and monitor factors critical to performance.

In financial economics and accounting research, post–earnings-announcement drift or PEAD (also named the SUE effect) is the tendency for a stock's cumulative abnormal returns to drift in the direction of an earnings surprise for several weeks (even several months) following an earnings announcement. This phenomenon is one of the oldest and most persistent capital market anomalies, with e

Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI or PRI) is a United Nations-supported international network of financial institutions working together to implement its six aspirational principles, often referenced as "the Principles". Its goal is to understand the implications of sustainability for investors and support signatories to facilitate incorporating these issues into their investm

Private equity (PE) expanded throughout the 2010s. As of 2019, there were nearly 7,000 PE firms within the United States, nearly $2.5 trillion globally in unspent cash (known as dry powder), and deal-making in private equity accounted for 13% of global acquisitions.

A proxy fight, proxy contest or proxy battle is an unfriendly contest for control over an organization. It is a form of shareholder activism. This usually occurs when a corporation's stockholders develop opposition to some aspect of the corporate governance, often focusing on directorial and management positions. Corporate activists may attempt to persuade shareholders to use their proxy

A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (listed company), which facilitates the trade of shares, or not (unlisted public company). In some jurisdictions, public companies over a certain size

Quality investing is an investment strategy based on a set of clearly defined fundamental criteria that seeks to identify companies with outstanding quality characteristics. The quality assessment is made based on soft (e.g. management credibility) and hard criteria (e.g. balance sheet stability). Quality investing supports best overall rather than best-in-class approach.

Raymond Thomas Dalio (born August 8, 1949) is an American billionaire investor and founder of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world's largest hedge funds.

Regulation S-K is a prescribed regulation under the US Securities Act of 1933 that lays out reporting requirements for various SEC filings used by public companies. Companies are also often called issuers (issuing or contemplating issuing shares), filers (entities that must file reports with the SEC) or registrants (entities that must register (usually shares) with the SEC).

RepRisk AG is an environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) data science company based in Zurich, Switzerland, specializing in ESG and business-conduct risk research, and quantitative solutions.

Reputational damage is the loss to financial capital, social capital and/or market share resulting from damage to an organization's reputation. This is often measured in lost revenue, increased operating, capital or regulatory costs, or destruction of shareholder value. Ethics violations, safety issues, security issues, a lack of sustainability, poor quality, and lack of or unethical inn

Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is the ratio between net income or profit to investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favorably to its cost. As a performance measure, ROI is used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiencies of several different investments. In econo

Return on Time Invested (ROTI) is a subjective metric used to analyze the productivity and efficiency of time spent for a certain activity, project, or product made. Unlike return on investment (ROI), which calculates the financial capital gained, ROTI evaluates the value gained from time spent on an activity compared to the time invested in it. While the criteria for how worth was the

S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes credit ratings on debt issued by companies, governments and structured finance vehicles. S&P is considered the largest of the Big Three credit-rating agencies, which also include Moody's Ratings and Fitch Ratings. Its former e

Say on pay is a term used for a role in corporate law whereby a firm's shareholders have the right to vote on the remuneration of executives. In the United States, this provision was ushered in when the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was passed in 2010. While Say on Pay is a non-binding, advisory vote, failure reflects shareholder dissatisfaction with executive

A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as a stockholder) refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) who is registered by a corporation as the legal owner of shares of the corporations share capital. Both public companies and private corporation have shareholders. Shareholders may also be referred to as mem

Shareholder activism is a form of activism in which shareholders use equity stakes in a corporation to put pressure on its management. A fairly small stake (less than 10% of outstanding shares) may be enough to launch a successful campaign. In comparison, a full takeover bid is a much more costly and difficult undertaking. The goals of shareholder activism range from financial (increase

A shareholder nomination to the AGM committee (SNAC, sometimes called a 'Shareholder Committee') is a voluntary committee formed with the Chairman of the Board to assess the current Directors and discuss potential future Directors. A shareholder committee typically holds two or three short meetings a year.

Shareholder primacy is a theory in corporate governance holding that shareholder interests should be assigned first priority relative to all other stakeholders. A shareholder primacy approach can give shareholders power to intercede directly and frequently in corporate decision-making, through such means as unilateral shareholder power to amend corporate charters, shareholder referendums

With respect to public companies in the United States, a shareholder resolution is a proposal submitted by shareholders for a vote at the company's annual meeting. Typically, resolutions are opposed by the corporation's management, hence the insistence for a vote. "Voting has long been recognized as one of the primary rights of shareholders." For publicly held corporations in the United

Social finance is a category of financial services that aims to leverage private capital to address challenges in areas of social and environmental need. Having gained popularity after the 2008 financial crisis, it is notable for its public benefit focus. Mechanisms of creating shared social value are not new; however, social finance is conceptually unique as an approach to solving socia

Socially responsible marketing is a marketing philosophy that encourages companies to consider the long-term interests of society when developing and implementing marketing strategies. The concept is closely tied to sustainable marketing that focuses on creating and delivering value to consumers while also preserving natural and human resources. Scholars note that sustainability marketin

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

Sustainalytics is a company that rates the sustainability of listed companies based on their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance. The company was born of a merger between Toronto-based Jantzi Research, which was founded in 1992 by Sustainalytics' current CEO Michael Jantzi, and its European counterpart. Following its acquisition of GES International on Januar

Tag-along rights (TARs) comprise a group of clauses in a contract which together have the effect of allowing the minority shareholder(s) in a corporation to also take part in a sale of shares by the majority shareholder to a third party under the same terms and conditions.

The Money of Invention: How Venture Capital Creates New Wealth is a non-fiction book about venture capital, written by Paul A. Gompers and Josh Lerner, Professors of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. The book was first published in 2001 by the Harvard Business School Press. It is considered one of the best studies about the venture capital industry in the United States.

"Tone at the top" is a term that originated in the field of accounting and is used to describe an organization's general ethical climate, as established by its board of directors, audit committee, and senior management. Having good tone at the top is believed by business ethics experts to help prevent fraud and other unethical practices. The very same idea is expressed in negative terms

A treasury management system (TMS) is a software application which automates the process of managing a company's financial operations. It helps companies to manage their financial activities, such as cash flow, assets and investments, automatically.

Securities regulation in the United States is the field of U.S. law that covers transactions and other dealings with securities. The term is usually understood to include both federal and state-level regulation by governmental regulatory agencies, but sometimes may also encompass listing requirements of exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange and rules of self-regulatory organizations

Values Modes is a segmentation tool in the United Kingdom, based on the British Values Survey.

Verifone, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in New York City, New York. Verifone provides technology for electronic payment transactions and value-added services at the point-of-sale. Verifone sells merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service payment systems to the financial, retail, hospitality, petroleum, government and healthcare industries. The compa

Whole-life cost is the total cost of ownership over the life of an asset. The concept is also known as life-cycle cost (LCC) or lifetime cost, and is commonly referred to as "cradle to grave" or "womb to tomb" costs. Costs considered include the financial cost which is relatively simple to calculate and also the environmental and social costs which are more difficult to quantify and assi

The World Pensions Forum, also called World Pensions & Investments Forum, is a research and policy oriented conference organised by M. Nicolas Firzli, founder of the World Pensions Council (WPC), in partnership with regional and supranational organisations, large public and private institutional investors from G10 countries, the emerging nations of Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and