Industry WIKI

An alternative financial service (AFS) is a financial service provided outside traditional banking institutions, on which many low-income individuals depend. In developing countries, these services often take the form of microfinance. In developed countries, the services may be similar to those provided by banks and include payday loans, rent-to-own agreements, pawnshops, refund anticipa

Arbitrage ( , UK also ) is the practice of taking advantage of a difference in prices in two or more markets – striking a combination of matching deals to capitalize on the difference, the profit being the difference between the market prices at which the unit is traded. Arbitrage has the effect of causing prices of the same or very similar assets in different markets to converge.

A bank vault is a secure room used by banks to store and protect valuables, cash, and important documents. Modern bank vaults are typically made of reinforced concrete and steel, with complex locking mechanisms and security systems. This article covers the design, construction, and security features of bank vaults.

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

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is a type of short-term debt financing that allows consumers to make purchases while only initially paying for a portion of their value, postponing payment of the remainder of the debt until a future date, or dividing it into a series of installment payments. BNPL is generally structured like a hire purchase or installment plan money lending process that involve

Convertibility is the quality that allows money or other financial instruments to be converted into other liquid stores of value. Convertibility is an important factor in international trade, where instruments valued in different currencies must be exchanged.

Early American currency went through several stages of development during the colonial and post-Revolutionary history of the United States. John Hull was authorized by the Massachusetts legislature to make the earliest coinage of the colony (the willow, the oak, and the pine tree shilling) in 1652.

Eurodollars is a financial term used to describe certain U.S. dollar-denominated deposit liabilities (primarily but not exclusively time deposits) held at banks or their branches outside the United States.

A fat-finger error is a keyboard input error or mouse misclick that occurs from a simple input mistake, causing unwanted secondary behavior. In common parlance, it simply refers to a common typographical error made on a touchscreen or physical keyboard that occurs when the wrong selection is made, or multiple selections are made due to options or keyboard keys being too close together.

Gold repatriation is the process by which governments and central banks relocate sovereign gold reserves from foreign vaults back to domestic storage. Historically driven by bilateral trade reallocations or immediate security concerns, modern gold repatriation has evolved into an accelerating global trend. According to annual surveys by the World Gold Council, the proportion of central b

The interbank lending market is a market in which banks lend funds to one another for a specified term. Most interbank loans are for maturities of one week or less, the majority being overnight. Such loans are made at the interbank rate (also called the overnight rate if the term of the loan is overnight). A sharp decline in transaction volume in this market was a major contributing fac

A negotiable instrument is a document guaranteeing the payment of a specific amount of money, either on demand, or at a set time, whose payer is usually named on the document. More specifically, it is a document contemplated by or consisting of a contract, which promises the payment of money without condition, which may be paid either on demand or at a future date. The term has different

The overnight rate is generally the interest rate that large banks use to borrow and lend from one another in the overnight market. In some countries (the United States, for example), the overnight rate may be the rate targeted by the central bank to influence monetary policy. In most countries, the central bank is also a participant on the overnight lending market, and will lend or borr

Private credit is an aspect of the shadow banking system involving assets defined by non-bank lending where the debt is not issued or traded on the public markets. "Private credit" can also be referred to as "direct lending" or "private lending". It is a subset of "alternative credit". Estimations of the global private credit industry's size vary; as of April 2024, the International Mone

The real bills doctrine says that as long as bankers lend to businessmen only against the security (collateral) of short-term 30-, 60-, or 90-day commercial paper representing claims to real goods in the process of production, the loans will be just sufficient to finance the production of goods. The doctrine seeks to have real output determine its own means of purchase without affecting

SOFR Academy, Inc. is an American financial market infrastructure company focused on developing benchmark credit-spread infrastructure designed to complement risk-free reference rates in global capital markets. In connection with global reference rate reform and the transition away from the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), which underpinned approximately US$400 trillion in financia