Industry WIKI

In April and May 2012, large trading losses occurred at JPMorgan's Chief Investment Office, based on transactions booked through its London branch. The unit was run by Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew, who later stepped down. A series of derivative transactions involving credit default swaps (CDS) were entered, reportedly as part of the bank's "hedging" strategy. Trader Bruno Iksil, nic

AirPlus International GmbH is a global corporate payment provider offering payment and data services for corporate travel management, procurement, and travel trade. Originally a subsidiary of Lufthansa Group, the company was acquired by SEB Kort in July 2024. The company provides business-to-business payment services around business travel payment, accounting, and analysis functions, in

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

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

Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown person published a white paper under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. Use of bitcoin as a currency began in 2009, with the release of its open-source implementation. From 2021 to 2025, El Salvador adopted it as legal tender curren

The Capital Markets Union (CMU) is an economic policy initiative launched by the former president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker in the initial exposition of his policy agenda on 15 July 2014. The main target was to create a single market for capital in the whole territory of the EU by the end of 2019. The reasoning behind the idea was to address the issue that corporate

Cash management refers to a broad area of finance involving the collection, handling, and usage of cash. It involves assessing market liquidity, cash flow, and investments.

A clearing house, often written as clearinghouse, is a financial institution formed to facilitate the exchange (i.e., clearance) of payments, securities, or derivatives transactions. The clearing house stands between two clearing firms (also known as member firms or participants).

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).

In finance, a contract for difference (CFD) is a financial agreement between two parties, commonly referred to as the "buyer" and the "seller." The contract stipulates that the buyer will pay the seller the difference between the value of an asset at the time the contract was initiated and the current value of the asset. If the asset's price increases from the opening to the closing of t

A credit card (or charge card) is a payment card, usually issued by a bank, allowing the card's users to purchase goods and services, or withdraw cash on credit. Card use thereby accrues debt that must be repaid later.

Cryptocurrency is a type of digital asset that uses distributed ledger, or blockchain, technology to enable a secure transaction.

EasyGo is a joint venture between Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Austria, that enables use of a single electronic toll tag on toll roads, ferries and bridges in all the member countries. The purpose of EasyGo is to enable the use of one OBE for payment when driving through any toll facility one might encounter on the way through Northern Europe and Austria.

Electronic benefit transfer (EBT) is an electronic system used in the United States that allows state welfare departments to issue benefits via a magnetically encoded payment card. It reached nationwide operations in 2004.

The Euro Short-Term Rate (€STR) is a reference rate for the euro. This interest rate can be used as the rate referenced in financial contracts that involve the euro. €STR is administered and calculated by the European Central Bank (ECB), based on the money market statistical reporting of the Eurosystem. According to the indications of the working group on euro risk-free rates, €STR repla

European DataWarehouse (EDW) is a Securitisation Repository designated by both the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). European DataWarehouse GmbH is part of the ABS Loan Level Data initiative established by the European Central Bank that is engaged in providing data warehousing services and full disclosure for investors in asset-ba

The European Network for Payments (abbreviated as ENP) is a joint venture aiming at developing a unified European payment solution and facilitating the interoperability of mobile payment solutions provided by several firms. The European Payments Alliance was created in December 2023 by Italian interbank network Bancomat, Spanish mobile payment firm Bizum and Portuguese firm SIBS (which

The European Payments Initiative (EPI), previously known as the Pan-European Payments System Initiative (PEPSI), is a unified digital payment service launched in 2020 and backed by sixteen founding European banks and payment service providers. Its aim is to allow European consumers and merchants to make next-generation payments for all types of person-to-person transfers and retail trans

The term exorbitant privilege refers to the benefits that the United States, as the world's supplier of safe assets, derives from its own currency (the US dollar) being the international reserve currency. These safe assets, primarily government debt, tend to be sold at higher prices than the debt of other governments. Exorbitant privilege enables the United States (and other states in a

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

The Financial Modeling World Cup (FMWC) is an organization that hosts various Microsoft Excel–based competitions.

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.

Foreign exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are cash and other reserve assets such as gold and silver held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, influence the foreign exchange rate of its currency, and to maintain confidence in financial markets. Reserves are held in one or more reserve cur

In macroeconomics, hard currency, sound money, safe-haven currency, or strong currency is any globally traded currency that serves as a reliable and stable store of value. Factors contributing to a currency's hard status might include its historical use as a money (such as gold or silver), or if it is a fiat currency, the stability and reliability of the respective state's legal and bure

An initial coin offering (ICO) or token sale is a form of capital raising in which a project issues and sells digital tokens using blockchain technology, typically in exchange for cryptocurrency or fiat currency. The tokens may grant access to a product or service, represent participation rights within a network, or function as speculative digital assets traded on cryptocurrency markets.

Instant payment (sometimes referred to as real-time payment or faster payment) is a method of electronic funds transfer, allowing for almost immediate transfer of money between bank accounts. This was in contrast to the previous transfer times of one to three business days that had been in place until the mid-2010s.

In finance and economics, interest is payment from a debtor or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinct from a fee which the borrower may pay to the lender or some third party. It is also distinct from dividend which is paid by a company to its share

Foreign exchange reserves, also called Forex reserves, in a strict sense, are foreign-currency deposits held by nationals and monetary authorities. However, in popular usage and in the list below, it also includes gold reserves, special drawing rights (SDRs), and IMF reserve positions because this total figure (more accurately called "official reserves", "international reserves", or "off

Mischler Financial Group is the American boutique investment bank and brokerage that became the financial industry's first firm owned and operated by Service-Disabled Veterans.

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).

Novation, in contract law and business law, is the act of –

The Palais Brongniart (French pronunciation: [palɛ bʁɔ̃ɲaʁ]; English: Brongniart Palace) is a building in Paris that was built at the direction of Napoleon in the early 19th century to house the Paris stock exchange (French: Bourse de Paris). It is located at the Place de la Bourse, in the 2nd arrondissement in central Paris. It was named after its initial architect, Alexandre-Théodore B

The Pfandbrief (plural: Pfandbriefe), a mostly triple-A rated German bank debenture, has become the blueprint of many covered bond models in Europe and beyond. The Pfandbrief is collateralized by long-term assets such as property mortgages or public sector loans as stipulated in the Pfandbrief Act. Total volume outstanding in Pfandbriefe was EUR 806 billion as at end-2008. Pfandbrief bon

The Plaza Accord was a joint agreement signed on September 22, 1985, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, between France, West Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, to depreciate the U.S. dollar in relation to the French franc, the German Deutsche Mark, the Japanese yen and the British pound sterling by intervening in currency markets. The U.S. dollar depreciated sig

Risk arbitrage, also known as merger arbitrage, is an investment strategy that speculates on the successful completion of mergers and acquisitions. An investor that employs this strategy is known as an arbitrageur. Risk arbitrage is a type of event-driven investing in that it attempts to exploit pricing inefficiencies caused by a corporate event.

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

The Smithsonian Agreement, announced in December 1971, created a new dollar standard, whereby the currencies of a number of industrialized states were pegged to the US dollar. These currencies were allowed to fluctuate by 2.25% against the dollar. The Smithsonian Agreement was created when the Group of Ten (G-10) states (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sw

The snake in the tunnel was a system of European monetary cooperation in the 1970s which aimed at limiting fluctuations between different European currencies. It was the first attempt at European monetary cooperation. It attempted to create a single currency band for the European Economic Community (EEC), essentially pegging all the EEC currencies to one another.

Special drawing rights (SDRs, code XDR) are a supplementary foreign exchange reserve asset defined and maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). SDRs are the units of account for the IMF, and not a currency; rather, SDR value is based on a basket of currencies, the specific composition of which is reviewed every five years. SDRs represent a claim to currency held by IMF member

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

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), legally S.W.I.F.T. SC, is a cooperative established in 1973 in Belgium (French: Société Coopérative) and owned by the banks and other member firms that use its service. SWIFT provides the main messaging network through which international payments are initiated. It also sells software and services to financial insti

TARGET2-Securities, in shorthand T2S, is the Eurosystem's platform for securities settlement in central bank money. T2S offers centralised delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement across several European securities markets, without being itself a central securities depository (CSD) since it does not offer CSD services such as custody or asset servicing.

UNIDROIT (formally, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law; French: Institut international pour l'unification du droit privé) is an intergovernmental organization whose objective is to harmonize private international law across countries through uniform rules, international conventions, and the production of model laws, sets of principles, guides and guidelines. E

Wero is a European digital wallet and instant account-to-account payment service developed by the European Payments Initiative (EPI). It was launched in Germany on 2 July 2024, followed by France and Belgium later that year. Wero is currently available in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Leading Austrian banks are planning to introduce the service.

A world currency, supranational currency, or global currency is a currency that is widely used in international finance or in international trade to price goods or other transactions. It is generally a currency which is stable in terms of inflation and has a high demand on the foreign exchange market. Greek and Roman coins were the first world currency, followed by Dutch guilders in the