Industry WIKI

Access to finance is the ability of individuals or enterprises to obtain financial services, including credit, deposit, payment, insurance, and other risk management services. Those who involuntarily have no or only limited access to financial services are referred to as the unbanked or underbanked, respectively. Areas with inadequate banking services are referred to as banking deserts.

ADSS (ADS Securities until 2018) is an Abu Dhabi-based financial services company that provides online trading, investment, wealth management, and asset management services to institutional, private, and retail clients. Established in 2011, ADSS expanded its brokerage activities and operated through subsidiaries and representative offices in financial centres including Hong Kong, Singapo

Agricultural finance is a branch of finance which comprises financial services for agricultural production, processing and marketing, leasing (both land and equipment), and crop and livestock insurance.

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

Altyn Asyr (lit. 'Golden age') is a Turkmenistani domestic card scheme founded in 2001 by the Central Bank of Turkmenistan. The Altyn Asyr system is an integral part of Turkmenistan's payment infrastructure. Altyn Asyr offers financial services, including credit card, debit card, and prepaid card issuing and network processing.

American Express Company (Amex) is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Express Tower, in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan; in 2026, the company announced that it would develop and be the sole occupant of the new 2 World Trad

Annual percentage rate of charge (APR), corresponding sometimes to a nominal APR and sometimes to an effective APR (EAPR), is the interest rate for a whole year (annualized), rather than just a monthly fee/rate, as applied on a loan, mortgage loan, credit card, etc. It is a finance charge expressed as an annual rate. Those terms have formal, legal definitions in some countries or legal j

Atlantic Money is a London-headquartered financial technology company that offers international money transfers for a fixed fee. The firm was founded in 2020 and officially launched in 2022 by two Americans, Neeraj Baid and Patrick Kavanagh, both early employees of the listed US financial services company Robinhood.

Audit Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Buidheann-sgrùdaidh na h-Alba) is an independent public body responsible for auditing most of Scotland's public organisations.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA; French: Autorités canadiennes en valeurs mobilières, ACVM) is an umbrella organization of Canada's provincial and territorial securities regulators whose objective is to improve, coordinate, and harmonize regulation of the Canadian capital markets.

Canadian securities regulation is managed through the laws and agencies established by Canada's 10 provincial and 3 territorial governments. Each province and territory has a securities commission or equivalent authority with its own provincial or territorial legislation.

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) was an independent committee of European Securities regulators, in place from 2001 to 2010. On 1 January 2011, it was replaced by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

A credit union is a member-owned nonprofit cooperative financial institution. It may offer financial services equivalent to those of commercial banks, such as share accounts (savings accounts), share draft accounts (checking accounts), credit cards, credit, share term certificates (certificates of deposit), and online banking. Normally, only a member of a credit union may deposit or borr

A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may accept credit card payments, wire transfers or other forms of payment in exchange for digital currencies or cryptocurrencies. A cryptocurrency excha

Cryptoeconomics is an evolving economic paradigm for a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of digital economies and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Cryptoeconomics integrates concepts and principles from traditional economics, cryptography, computer science, and game theory disciplines. Just as traditional economics provides a theoretical foundation for traditional finan

Finco Services, Inc., branded as Current, is an American financial services and software development company based in New York City. It provides mobile banking services through its partner banks, Choice Financial Group, and Cross River Bank.

DataTreasury is an American fintech company. Located in Plano, Texas, the company develops, acquires and licenses technology for secure check image capture and storage. The company has a patent portfolio relating to these technologies, which it enforces.

The Department of Finance (DoF, Irish: An Roinn Airgeadais, Ulster-Scots: Männystrie o Siller) is a devolved Northern Ireland government department in the Northern Ireland Executive. The minister with overall responsibility for the department is the Minister for Finance. The incumbent Minister is John O'Dowd.

Dynamic currency conversion (DCC) or cardholder preferred currency (CPC) is a process whereby the amount of a credit card transaction is converted at the point of sale, ATM or internet to the currency of the card's country of issue. DCC is generally provided by third party operators in association with the merchant, and not by a card issuer. Card issuers permit DCC operators to offer DCC

EarnIn is an American earnings management company that provides earned wage access services and other financial and payroll-related services.

In finance, mainly for financial services firms, economic capital (ecap) is the amount of risk capital, assessed on a realistic basis, which a firm requires to cover the risks that it is running or collecting as a going concern, such as market risk, credit risk, legal risk, and operational risk. It is the amount of money that is needed to secure survival in a worst-case scenario. Firms a

Empower Annuity Insurance Company of America is a retirement plan recordkeeping financial holding company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, United States. It is the second-largest retirement plan provider in the United States.

The principle of equivalence in financial services at the European Union (EU) level is one of the instruments the Commission has at its disposal to carry out its international strategy for financial services. The principle of equivalence is materialised through an equivalence decision issued by the European Commission to a targeted country that it judges fit to have access to the Europea

The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) is a standing committee of the European Parliament. It is responsible for economic and monetary policy, the functioning of Economic and Monetary Union, financial services and markets, the free movement of capital and payments, taxation, competition policy and the international monetary and financial system.

A financial centre (financial center in American English) or financial hub is a location with a significant concentration of commerce in financial services.

Financial inclusion is the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to processes by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services—which include banking, loan, equity, and insurance products. It provides paths to enhance inclusiveness in economic growth by enabling the unbanked po

Financial regulation is a broad set of policies that apply to the financial sector in most jurisdictions, justified by two main features of finance: systemic risk, which implies that the failure of financial firms involves public interest considerations; and information asymmetry, which justifies curbs on freedom of contract in selected areas of financial services, particularly those tha

Financial services are economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of service sector activities, especially as concerns financial management and consumer finance.

The industry which has a range of businesses that deal with money like banks, insurance companies, accounting companies, finance companies, taxation, investment funds, credit companies, and few government enterprises is called the finance industry. The activities or services within this industry that cater to the economy of the country are called financial services. Therefore, the econom

A financial system is a system that allows the exchange of funds between financial market participants such as lenders, investors, and borrowers. Financial systems operate at national and global levels. Financial institutions consist of complex, closely related services, markets, and institutions intended to provide an efficient and regular linkage between investors and borrowers.

Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of new technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological tools in financial services, including mobile banking, online lending platforms, digital payment systems, robo-advisors, and blockchain-based applications such as cryptocurrencies. Financi

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.

First Data Corporation was an American financial services company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The company's STAR Network provided nationwide domestic debit acceptance at more than 2 million retail POS, ATM, and at online outlets for nearly a third of all U.S. debit cards.

Foreign exchange regulation is a form of financial regulation specifically aimed at the over-the-counter Forex market that is decentralized and operates with no central exchange or clearing house. Due to its decentralized and global nature, the foreign exchange market has been more prone to foreign exchange fraud and has been less regulated than other financial markets.

Financial planning and analysis (FP&A), in accounting and business, refers to the various integrated planning, analysis, and modeling activities aimed at supporting financial decisioning and management

The GIFT International Financial Services Centre (GIFT IFSC) is a financial centre and special economic zone in GIFT City, India. It was established in 2015 as a financial hub to provide world-class infrastructure and services for financial institutions and companies operating in areas such as banking, insurance, capital markets, and asset management. GIFT IFSC is regulated by the Intern

The Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) is an industry taxonomy developed in 1999 by MSCI and Standard & Poor's (S&P) for use by the global financial community. The GICS structure consists of 11 sectors, 25 industry groups, 74 industries and 163 sub-industries into which S&P has categorized all major public companies. The system is similar to ICB (Industry Classification Benc

Grey, formerly known as Aboki Africa, is a financial technology company headquartered in Delaware, US. Founded in 2020 by Idorenyin Obong and Femi Aghedo during the global pandemic of 2020, the company focuses on creating global financial products for digital nomads. Grey is registered and licensed in Canada by FinTrac and the USA by FinCen and operates in the financial service market.

Hawala or hewala (Arabic: حِوالة, romanized: Ḥawāla, lit. 'transfer, trust'), originating in India as havālā (Hindi: हवाला) or huṇḍī (Hindi: हुण्डी, romanized: Huṇḍī, Sanskrit: हुण्डिका, romanized: Huṇḍikā, lit. 'bill of exchange, draft, or promissory note'), also known as ḥavâleh in Persian, and xawala or xawilaad in Somali, is a popular and informal value transfer system based on the p

An intermediary, also known as a middleman or go-between, is defined in various ways, according to context. In law or diplomacy, an intermediary is a third party who offers intermediation services between two parties. In trade or barter, an intermediary acts as a conduit for goods or services offered by a supplier to a consumer, which may include wholesalers, resellers, brokers, and vari

International finance (also referred to as international monetary economics) is the branch of monetary and macroeconomic interrelations between two or more countries. International finance examines the dynamics of the global financial system, international monetary systems, balance of payments, exchange rates, foreign direct investment, and how these topics relate to international trade.

The International Financial Services Centre (IFSC; Irish: Lárionad Seirbhísí Airgeadais Idirnáisiúnta) is an area of central Dublin and part of the CBD established in the 1980s as an urban regeneration area and special economic zone (SEZ) on the derelict state-owned former port authority lands of the reclaimed North Wall and George's Dock areas of the Dublin Docklands. The term has beco

Investment outsourcing is the process whereby institutional investors and high-net-worth families engage a third party to manage all or a portion of their investment portfolio. This arrangement can include functions such as establishing the asset allocation, selecting investment managers, implementing portfolio decisions (both strategic and tactical), providing on-going oversight, perfo

ISO 9564 is an international standard for personal identification number (PIN) management and security in financial services.

JPay is a privately held information technology and financial services provider focused on serving the United States prison system. With headquarters in Miramar, Florida, the company contracts with state, county, and federal prisons and jails to provide technologies and services including money transfer, email, video visitation and parole and probation payments to approximately 1.5 mill

Kantox Ltd is a multinational fintech company that offers Currency Management Automation software for corporate clients. Their software automates the pre-trade, trade, and post-trade stages of the corporate foreign exchange (FX) workflow.

Lender option borrower option or lender's option borrower's option (LOBO) is a long term borrowing instrument available in the United Kingdom. They involve periodic interest re-fixings, which incorporates two linked options:

Liquidity risk is a financial risk that for a certain period of time a given financial asset, security or commodity cannot be traded quickly enough in the market without impacting the market price.

A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host skyscrapers and other buildings of architectural importance and are called financial centres; such major centres also include important financial

In finance, market data is price and other related data for a financial instrument reported by a trading venue such as a stock exchange. Market data allows traders and investors to know the latest price and see historical trends for instruments such as equities, fixed-income products, derivatives, and currencies.

Matchbook FX was an Internet-based electronic communication network ("ECN" or Electronic Trading Network) for trading currency online in the Spot-FX or foreign exchange market. It operated between 1999 and 2002.

Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to borrowers with limited access to traditional credit who typically do not have access to traditional banking services due to a lack of collateral, steady employment, and a verifiable credit history. The primary aim of microcredit is to support entrepreneurship, facilitate self-employment, and alleviate poverty, particularly

Midpoint (Midpoint Holdings Ltd) is a UK headquartered, Toronto and Frankfurt listed company providing international payments and peer-to-peer foreign exchange (bureau de change) services to individual and corporate customers. Midpoint is the world’s first dedicated peer-to-peer international foreign currency matching platform. The company's patented matching technology was the first app

The Ministry of Finance of Libya (Arabic: وزارة المالية ليبيا) is the finance ministry responsible for public finances of Libya.

The Ministry of Finance of Mauritius is a ministerial department found in the Cabinet of the Government of the Republic. It is considered as the most executive and important ministry in the cabinet after the Prime Minister's Office. The minister of finance is the most desirable position in the cabinet of the country except of the prime minister. Most of the time being the Deputy Prime Mi

The Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOFE; Korean: 재정경제부) oversees the financial policies of the Government of the Republic of Korea. It publishes a monthly report on the national economy, known as the "Green Book." The current minister is Koo Yun-cheol. The headquarters is in the Sejong Government Complex in Sejong City.

Moneycorp is a British payment company that provides foreign exchange and global payment services to individual and corporate customers. The company was founded in London in 1979. Its clients include individuals, corporations, and other financial institution. It has a branches in the United Kingdom, North America, Europe, Asia and a number of other countries.

MoneyGram International, Inc. is an American interstate and international peer-to-peer payments and money transfer company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It has an operations center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and regional and local offices around the world.

Monzo Bank Limited, trading as Monzo (), is a British online bank based in London, England. Monzo launched as part of a number of app-based challenger banks entering the UK market.

In the United States, a mortgage note (also known as a real estate lien note or borrower's note) is a promissory note secured by a specified mortgage loan.

N26 Bank SE, doing business as N26, and formerly named Papayer GmbH, and Number26 GmbH, is a multinational German fintech and neobank company based in Berlin. N26 was founded in 2013 by Rocket Internet and operates in various European Union member states that are members of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

The New York Institute of Finance (NYIF) is an American for-profit provider of continuing professional education that was founded by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 1922.

Nium is a Singapore-headquartered cross-border payments company. Initially founded by Prajit Nanu and Michael Bermingham, and launched as a consumer-remittance platform Instarem in 2014. In 2016, the company introduced its B2B payments platform and rebranded as Nium in 2019, subsequently elevating Pratik Gandhi to co-founder in 2021. However, Gandhi left Nium in October 2023, around the

Novalnet is a European payment service provider that provides e-commerce businesses with electronic and point-of-sale payment processing services. The Novalnet platform is designed to automate merchants' business processes across the e-commerce value chain, from checkout to debt collection.

An overdraft occurs when something is withdrawn in excess of what is in a current account. For financial systems, this can be funds in a bank account. In these situations the account is said to be "overdrawn". In the economic system, if there is a prior agreement with the account provider for an overdraft, and the amount overdrawn is within the authorized overdraft limit, then interest i

Peer-to-peer investing (P2PI) is the practice of investing money in notes issued by borrowers who are requesting a loan without going through a traditional financial intermediary and who are unknown to the investor. P2PI is not to be confused with Peer-to-peer lending (P2PL) which deals with the borrower's part. Investing takes place online via a peer-to-peer lending/investing company. T

Peer-to-peer lending (P2P lending) is the practice of lending money to individuals or businesses through online services that match lenders with borrowers. Peer-to-peer lending companies often offer their services online, and attempt to operate with lower overhead and provide their services more cheaply than traditional financial institutions. As a result, lenders can earn higher returns

PhonePe is an Indian digital payments and financial services company, headquartered in Bengaluru. It was founded in December 2015, by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer. The PhonePe app, based on the Unified Payments Interface, went live in August 2016.

Predatory lending refers to unethical practices conducted by lending organizations during a loan origination process that are unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent. While there are no internationally agreed legal definitions for predatory lending, a 2006 audit report from the office of inspector general of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) broadly defines predatory lending a

Private banking is a general description for banking, investment and other financial services provided by banks and financial institutions primarily serving high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) – those with very high income or substantial assets. Private banking is presented by those who provide such services as an exclusive subset of wealth management services, provided to particularly af

A prospectus, in finance, is a disclosure document that describes a financial security for potential buyers. It commonly provides investors with material information about mutual funds, stocks, bonds and other investments, such as a description of the company's business, financial statements, biographies of officers and directors, detailed information about their compensation, any litiga

Retail foreign exchange trading is a small segment of the larger foreign exchange market where individuals speculate on the exchange rate between different currencies. This segment has developed with the advent of dedicated electronic trading platforms and the internet, which allows individuals to access the global currency markets. As of 2016, it was reported that retail foreign exchang

Rewire by Remitly is a digital financial platform operated by the fintech company Remitly in Israel that provides online financial services tailored to migrant workers. The platform provides remittance services for workers to transfer funds back home. The Rewire by Remitly platform was originally built by the Israeli startup Rewire which was founded by Guy Kashtan, Saar Yahalom, Adi Ben

The National Payment Card System (Russian: Национальная система платёжных карт; known its acronym NSPK) is an operational and payment clearing house for processing bank card transactions within Russia and the operator of the Mir card payment system. It is the operational and payment clearing house of the Faster Payment System (FPS) and wholly owned by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR).

A secured loan is a loan in which the borrower pledges some asset (e.g. a car or property) as collateral for the loan, which then becomes a secured debt owed to the creditor who gives the loan. The debt is thus secured against the collateral, and if the borrower defaults, the creditor takes possession of the asset used as collateral and may sell it to regain some or all of the amount ori

Securities research is a discipline within the financial services industry about securities. Securities research professionals are known most generally as "analysts", "research analysts", or "securities analysts"; all the foregoing terms are synonymous. Research analysts produce research reports and typically issue a recommendation: buy ("overweight"), hold, or sell ("underweight"); see

A security token offering (STO) / tokenized IPO is a type of public offering in which tokenized digital securities, known as security tokens, are sold in security token exchanges. Tokens can be used to trade real financial assets such as equities and fixed income, and use a blockchain virtual ledger system to store and validate token transactions.

The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) is a payment-integration system of the European Union that makes cross-border bank transfers in euros as fast, cheap, and simple as domestic payments. It allows individuals and businesses to make cashless euro transfers to any account within the zone using a single bank account and an International Bank Account Number, under the same basic conditions

Social media in the financial services sector refers to the use of social media by the financial services sector to promote and distribute financial services. Social media is used in various aspects of the financial industry including customer service, marketing, and product development. It has enabled financial institutions to extend their reach through direct and real-time communicatio

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

The Steyler Bank is a German ethical-ecological bank using Christian finance principles that following the Steyler Missionare. It was founded in 1964 in Sankt Augustin, where it still has its headquarters, and creates funds from an ethical point of view. The Steyler Bank also has a branch in Austria.

Stripe, LLC is an Irish-American multinational financial services and software as a service (SaaS) company dual-headquartered in South San Francisco, California, United States, and Dublin, Ireland. The company primarily offers payment-processing software and application programming interfaces for e-commerce websites and mobile applications.

Tipalti is an American multinational financial technology company headquartered in Foster City, California, with offices in Amsterdam, London, Plano, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv, Toronto, and Vancouver. The company provides accounts payable, procurement, expense management, and global payments automation software for businesses.

In finance, a trading strategy is a fixed plan that is designed to achieve a profitable return by going long or short in markets.

Transfast is an international money transfer and cross-border payments company headquartered in New York, with additional offices in India (Kochi, Pune, Jalandhar, and Hoshiarpur), the UAE, Nigeria, and the Philippines. Transfast is owned by Mastercard.

Treasury management (or treasury operations) entails management of an enterprise's financial holdings, focusing on the firm's liquidity, and mitigating its financial, operational and reputational risk.

The United States House Committee on Financial Services, also referred to as the House Banking Committee and previously known as the Committee on Banking and Currency, is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees the entire financial services industry, including the securities, insurance, banking and housing industries. The Financial Services Committee als

A universal bank is a type of bank which participates in many kinds of banking activities and is both a commercial bank and an investment bank as well as providing other financial services such as insurance. These are also called full-service financial firms, although there can also be full-service investment banks which provide wealth and asset management, trading, underwriting, researc

Zelle () is an American digital payments network run by a private financial services company owned by Bank of America, Truist, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. The Zelle service enables individuals to electronically transfer money from their bank account to another registered user's bank account (within the United States) using a mobile device or the web