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Digital assets and currencies

Understand assets, networks and trading mechanics with sources you can check.

Fiat currencies

2018 Swiss sovereign-money initiative

The Swiss sovereign money initiative of June 2018, also known as Vollgeld, was a citizens' (popular) initiative in Switzerland intended to give the Swiss National Bank the sole authority to create money.

Trading basics

Administration (British football)

In the United Kingdom, football clubs sometimes choose to enter administration (sanction) when they are unable to pay off outstanding debts. Under the Insolvency Act 1986, a business will face a winding-up order bringing them to court and if it is shown that a business cannot pay debts as they fall due or cannot repay outstanding debts then the company will be classified as insolvent. Ad

Trading basics

Administration (law)

As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions, similar to receivership or bankruptcy in the United States. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry on running their business. The process – in the United Kingdom colloquially called being "under administration" – is an alternativ

Assets

Alameda Research

Alameda Research was a cryptocurrency trading firm founded in September 2017 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Tara Mac Aulay. In November 2022, Alameda's sister cryptocurrency exchange FTX experienced a solvency crisis that resulted in both companies filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. That same month, anonymous sources told The Wall Street Journal that FTX had loaned more than half of its custome

Trading basics

Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive 2011

Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive 2011 (2011/61/EU) is a directive of the European Union on the financial regulation of hedge funds, private equity, real estate funds, and other "Alternative Investment Fund Managers" (AIFMs) in the European Union. The Directive requires all covered AIFMs to obtain authorisation, and make various disclosures as a condition of operation. It fo

Finance

Alternative Investment Market

AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows companies that are smaller, less-developed, or want/need a more flexible approach to governance to float shares with a more flexible regulatory sys

Trading basics

Anti-deprivation rule

The anti-deprivation rule (also known as fraud upon the bankruptcy law) is a principle applied by the courts in common law jurisdictions (other than the United States) in which, according to Mellish LJ in Re Jeavons, ex parte Mackay, "a person cannot make it a part of his contract that, in the event of bankruptcy, he is then to get some additional advantage which prevents the property be

Banking

Asset–liability mismatch

In finance, an asset–liability mismatch occurs when the financial terms of an institution's assets and liabilities do not correspond. Several types of mismatches are possible. An asset-liability mismatch presents a material risk at institutions with significant debt exposure, such as banks or sovereign governments. A significant mismatch may lead to insolvency or illiquidity, which can c

Trading basics

Bad debt

In finance, bad debt, occasionally called uncollectible accounts expense, is a monetary amount owed to a creditor that is unlikely to be paid and for which the creditor is not willing to take action to collect for various reasons, often due to the debtor not having the money to pay, for example due to a company going into liquidation or insolvency. A high bad debt rate is caused when a b

Banking

Bank failure

A bank failure occurs when a bank is unable to meet its obligations to its depositors or other creditors because it has become insolvent or too illiquid to meet its liabilities. Failing banks share commonalities: rising asset losses, deteriorating solvency, and an increasing reliance on expensive noncore funding.

Finance

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor.

Trading basics

Bankruptcy Law in the Republic of Ireland

Bankruptcy in Irish Law is a legal process, supervised by the High Court whereby the assets of a personal debtor are realised and distributed amongst his or her creditors in cases where the debtor is unable or unwilling to pay his debts.

Trading basics

Basel II

Basel II is a framework on banking regulations published by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in June 2004 to determine the minimum capital that banks should hold to guard against the financial and operational risks. It superseded Basel I and was extended and partially superseded by Basel III.

Trading basics

Bill of sale

A bill of sale is a document that transfers ownership of goods from one person to another. It is used in situations where the former owner transfers possession of the goods to a new owner. Bills of sale may be used in a wide variety of transactions: to sell goods, exchange, give, or mortgage objects. They can be used only to transfer ownership of goods that people already own or to trans

Assets

Bitwala

Bitwala is a Berlin-based cryptocurrency financial services company offering a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet, a Visa debit card, crypto trading, and crypto-backed loans. The company was founded in 2015 by Jörg von Minckwitz, Jan Goslicki, and Benjamin P. Jones. After operating briefly under the name Nuri from 2021 to 2022, the company returned to the Bitwala brand in late 2023 following

Finance

British Business Bank

British Business Bank plc is the United Kingdom government’s economic development bank. It supports smaller businesses’ access to debt and equity finance by working through accredited lenders and fund managers rather than lending directly to most firms. It is wholly owned by HM Government and is headquartered in Sheffield, England.

Finance

Captive insurance

Captive insurance is an alternative to self-insurance in which insured parties establish a licensed insurance company for their own use and benefit. The company focuses its service on the specific risks of the insureds and is incentivized to maintain a low profit margin, since it has no separate investors. A captive insurance company helps its sponsors finance their risks and offers them

Trading basics

Card money

Card money is a type of fiat money printed on plain cardboard or playing cards, which was used at times as currency in several colonies and countries (including Dutch Guiana, New France, and France) from the 17th century to the early 19th century. Where introduced, it was often followed by high rates of inflation.

Payments & settlement

Change Healthcare

Change Healthcare Inc. (previously known as Emdeon) is a healthcare technology company that provides revenue cycle management and payment processing services for healthcare providers and insurers in the United States. The business was acquired by Optum in a $13 billion deal in 2022, in an effort to combine their service operations with the aforementioned technologies that Change Healthca

Finance

Chose

Chose (pronounced: , French for "thing") is a term used in common law tradition to refer to rights in property, specifically a combined bundle of rights. A chose is the enforcement right which a party possesses in an object. The use of chose extends from the English use of French within the courts. In English and commonwealth law, all personal things fall into one of two categories, eith

Finance

Coherent risk measure

In the fields of actuarial science and financial economics there are a number of ways that risk can be defined; to clarify the concept theoreticians have described a number of properties that a risk measure might or might not have. A coherent risk measure is a function that satisfies properties of monotonicity, sub-additivity, homogeneity, and translational invariance.

Trading basics

Collateral (finance)

In lending agreements, collateral is a borrower's pledge of specific property to a lender, to secure repayment of a loan. The collateral serves as a lender's protection against a borrower's default and so can be used to offset the loan if the borrower fails to pay the principal and interest satisfactorily under the terms of the lending agreement.

Trading basics

Collateral management

Collateral has been used for hundreds of years to provide security against the possibility of payment default by the opposing party in a trade. Collateral management began in the 1980s, with Bankers Trust and Salomon Brothers taking collateral against credit exposure. There were no legal standards, and most calculations were performed manually on spreadsheets. Collateralisation of deriva

Trading basics

Conservatorship

Under U.S. law, a conservatorship results from the appointment of a guardian or a protector by a judge to manage the personal or financial affairs of another person who is incapable of fully managing their own affairs due to age or physical or mental limitations. A person under conservatorship is a "conservatee", a term that can refer to an adult. A person under guardianship is a "ward",

Finance

Consumer leverage ratio

The consumer leverage ratio (CLR) is the ratio of total household debt to disposable personal income. The Federal Reserve separately reports household debt service payments as a percentage of disposable personal income. The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes disposable personal income data.

Finance

Contingent convertible bond

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

Trading basics

Corporate debt bubble

The corporate debt bubble is the large increase in corporate bonds, excluding that of financial institutions, following the 2008 financial crisis. Global corporate debt rose from 84% of gross world product in 2009 to 92% in 2019, or about $72 trillion. In the world's eight largest economies—the United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany—total corpo

Finance

Court auction

Court auction is an auction which takes place at a public location designated by the court.

Trading basics

Cram down

A cram down or cramdown is the involuntary imposition by a court of a reorganization plan over the objection of some classes of creditors.

Trading basics

Creditor

A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property or service to the second party under the assumption (usually enforced by contract) that the second party will return an equivalent property and

Trading basics

Debt evasion

Debt evasion is the intentional act of trying to avoid attempts by creditors to collect or pursue one's debt. At an elementary level, this includes the refusal to answer one's phone by screening one's calls or by ignoring mailed notices informing the debtor of the debt. In more advanced cases, this includes misleading the creditor to believe the debtor does not reside at the location whe

Trading basics

Debt restructuring

Debt restructuring is a process that allows a private or public company or a sovereign entity facing cash flow problems and financial distress to reduce and renegotiate its delinquent debts to improve or restore liquidity so that it can continue its operations.

Finance

Debt snowball method

The debt snowball method is a debt-reduction strategy, whereby one who owes on more than one account pays off the accounts starting with the smallest balances first, while paying the minimum payment on larger debts. Once the smallest debt is paid off, one proceeds to the next larger debt, and so forth, proceeding to the largest ones last. This method is sometimes contrasted with the deb

Finance

Debt-to-income ratio

In the consumer mortgage industry, debt-to-income ratio (DTI) is the percentage of a consumer's monthly gross income that goes toward paying debts. (Speaking precisely, DTIs often cover more than just debts; they can include principal, taxes, fees, and insurance premiums as well. Nevertheless, the term is a set phrase that serves as a convenient, well-understood shorthand.) There are two

Trading basics

Debtor

A debtor or debitor is a legal entity (legal person) that owes a debt to another entity. The entity may be an individual, a firm, a government, a company or other legal person. The counterparty is called a creditor. When the counterpart of this debt arrangement is a bank, the debtor is more often referred to as a borrower.

Trading basics

Default (finance)

In finance, default is failure to meet the legal obligations (or conditions) of a loan, for example when a home buyer fails to make a mortgage payment, or when a corporation or government fails to pay a bond which has reached maturity. A national or sovereign default is the failure or refusal of a government to repay its national debt.

Banking

Dumbell's Bank

Dumbell's Bank was a bank in the Isle of Man. The bank's insolvency in 1900, known as Black Saturday and referred to in the Isle of Man as the Dumbell's Bank Crash, resulted in a run on the bank with many individuals losing their life savings and the ruin of numerous local businesses causing poverty, depression and bankruptcy. The effects were profound and lasted for a considerable numbe

Trading basics

Examinership

Examinership is a process in Irish law whereby the protection of the Court is obtained to assist the survival of a company. It allows a company to restructure with the approval of the High Court.

Finance

Farm Debt Mediation Act

The Farm Debt Mediation Act (French: Loi sur la médiation en matière d’endettement agricole, S.C. 1997, c. 21) ("FDMA") is an act of the Parliament of Canada that enables a debt advisory service to insolvent farmers by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, as well as certain protective provisions available to help facilitate mediation with creditors while allowing such farmers to continue th

Finance

Federal budget of Switzerland

The Swiss federal budget (German: schweizer Bundesbudget) refers to the annual revenue (money received) and expenditures (money spent) of the Swiss Confederation. As budget expenditures are issued on a yearly basis by the government, the federal council, and have to be approved by the parliament, they reflect the country's fiscal policy.

Trading basics

Financial distress

Financial distress is a term in corporate finance used to indicate a condition when promises to creditors of a company are broken or honored with difficulty. If financial distress cannot be relieved, it can lead to bankruptcy. Financial distress is usually associated with some costs to the company; these are known as costs of financial distress.

Finance

Financial Instrument Global Identifier

The Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI) /ˈfɪ.gi/ (formerly Bloomberg Global Identifier (BBGID)) is an open standard, unique identifier of financial instruments that can be assigned to instruments including common stock, options, derivatives, futures, corporate and government bonds, municipals, currencies, and mortgage products.

Trading basics

First Solution Money Transfer

First Solution Money Transfer was a UK-based private limited company which provided a money transfer service, providing expatriates the facilities to transfer money back to their family in Bangladesh.

Trading basics

Floating charge

In finance, a floating charge is a security interest over a fund of changing assets of a company or other legal person. Unlike a fixed charge, which is created over ascertained and definite property, a floating charge is created over property of an ambulatory and shifting nature, such as receivables and stock.

Finance

Fraudulent conveyance

A fraudulent conveyance or fraudulent transfer is the transfer of property to another party to prevent, hinder, or delay the collection of a debt owed by or incumbent on the party making the transfer, sometimes by rendering the transferring party insolvent. It is generally treated as a civil cause of action that arises in debtor/creditor relations, typically brought by creditors or by ba

Trading basics

Fraudulent trading

In company law, fraudulent trading is doing business with intent to defraud creditors.

Trading basics

Insolvency

In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company (debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be insolvent. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet insolvency.

Finance

Insolvency practitioner

In the United Kingdom, only an authorised or licensed insolvency practitioner (IP) may be appointed in relation to formal insolvency procedures.

Trading basics

Insurance regulatory law

Insurance regulatory law is part of insurance law that covers statutory law, administrative regulations and jurisprudence that regulates the insurance industry and those engaged in the business of insurance. Insurance regulatory law is primarily enforced through regulations, rules and directives by national or state insurance agencies or departments as authorized and directed by statutor

Securities & exchanges

ISDA Master Agreement

The ISDA Master Agreement, published by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), is the most commonly used master service agreement for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives transactions internationally. It is part of a framework of documents, designed to enable OTC derivatives to be documented fully and flexibly. The framework consists of a master agreement, a schedule,

Trading basics

Liquidation

Liquidation or winding-up is the process in law by which a company is brought to an end and its assets and property distributed to claimants. When a company has been liquidated, it is sometimes said to be wound-up or dissolved, although dissolution technically refers only to the final stage of liquidation.

Trading basics

Liquidator (law)

In law, a liquidator is the officer appointed when a company goes into winding-up or liquidation who has responsibility for collecting in all of the assets under such circumstances of the company and settling all claims against the company before putting the company into dissolution. Liquidator is a person officially appointed to 'liquidate' a company or firm. Their duty is to ascertain

Trading basics

Loan guarantee

A loan guarantee, in finance, is a promise by one party (the guarantor) to assume the debt obligation of a borrower if that borrower defaults. A guarantee can be limited or unlimited, making the guarantor liable for only a portion or all of the debt.

Trading basics

Pari passu

Pari passu is a Latin phrase that literally means "with an equal step" or "on equal footing". It is sometimes translated as "ranking equally", "hand-in-hand", "with equal force", or "moving together", and by extension, "fairly", "without partiality".

Trading basics

Pensions crisis

The pensions crisis, or pensions time bomb is the predicted difficulty in paying for corporate or government pension benefits in various countries, due to a mismatch between pension obligations and the resources set aside to fund them. The basic difficulty of the pension problem is that institutions must be sustained over far longer than the political planning horizon. Shifting demograph

Trading basics

Personal Insolvency Arrangement

A Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA) is a statutory mechanism in Ireland for individuals who cannot repay their debts as they come due but who wish to avoid bankruptcy. The arrangement is one of the three alternatives authorized under Ireland's Personal Insolvency Act 2012; Debt Settlement Arrangements (DSA) and Debt Relief Notices (DRN) are the other two arrangements. A PIA is a lega

Securities & exchanges

Personal Property Security Act (Canada)

The Personal Property Security Act ("PPSA") is the name given to each of the statutes passed by all common law provinces, as well as the territories, of Canada that regulate the creation and registration of security interests in all personal property within their respective jurisdictions.

Trading basics

Phantom debt

Phantom debt or zombie debt is a debt that is old, defaulted, or not owed and is somehow still being pursued for collection to be paid by the presumed debtor. It generally refers to debt that is more than 3 years old, is long forgotten about or belonged to someone else – like someone with the same name or a deceased parent. The amount owed can grow to hundreds or thousands of dollars mor

Banking

Post-2008 Irish banking crisis

The post-2008 Irish banking crisis occurred when a number of Irish financial institutions faced almost imminent collapse due to insolvency during the Great Recession. In response, the Irish government instigated a €64 billion bank bailout. This then led to a number of unexpected revelations about the business affairs of some banks and business people. Ultimately, added onto the deepening

Finance

Pre-approval

In lending, a pre-approval is the pre-qualification for a loan or mortgage of a certain value range.

Trading basics

Preferential creditor

A preferential creditor (in some jurisdictions called a preferred creditor) is a creditor receiving a preferential right to payment upon the debtor's bankruptcy under applicable insolvency laws.

Trading basics

Provisional liquidation

Provisional liquidation is a process which exists as part of the corporate insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions whereby after the lodging of a petition for the winding-up of a company by the court, but before the court hears and determines the petition, the court may appoint a liquidator on a "provisional" basis. (The provisional liquidator is appointed to safeguard t

Trading basics

Quadriga (cryptocurrency exchange)

Quadriga Fintech Solutions was the owner and operator of QuadrigaCX. QuadrigaCX was believed to be Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange at the time of its collapse in 2019, with the exchange ceasing operations and the company filing for bankruptcy with C$215.7 million in liabilities and about C$28 million in assets.

Finance

Re Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (No 8)

Re Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (No 8) [1998] AC 214 is a UK insolvency law case, concerning the taking of a security interest over a company's assets and priority of creditors in a company winding up.

Trading basics

Receivership

In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver – a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights" – especially in cases where a company cannot meet its financial obligations and is said to be insolvent. The receivership remedy is an equitable remedy that emerg

Finance

Risk measure

In financial mathematics, a risk measure assigns a numerical value to the risk associated with a financial position or portfolio. In financial management and insurance, risk measures are often used to determine capital reserve requirements to mitigate downside risk to make it acceptable to regulators. In recent years attention has turned to convex and coherent risk measurement.

Finance

Ruin theory

In actuarial science and applied probability, ruin theory (sometimes risk theory or collective risk theory) uses mathematical models to describe an insurer's vulnerability to insolvency/ruin. In such models key quantities of interest are the probability of ruin, distribution of surplus immediately prior to ruin, and deficit at time of ruin.

Trading basics

Second lien loan

The vast majority of all second lien loans are senior secured obligations of the borrower. Second lien loans differ from both unsecured debt and subordinated debt.

Finance

Security interest

In law and finance, a security interest is a legal right that a secured party has over secured assets. Security interests most often arise where a debtor grants an interest over collateral to a creditor to secure the loan, such that the creditor will have enforceable rights in the event of the debtor's default or non-performance.

Finance

Set-off (law)

In law, set-off or netting is a legal technique applied between persons or businesses with mutual rights and liabilities, replacing gross positions with net positions. It permits the rights to be used to discharge the liabilities where cross claims exist between a plaintiff and a respondent, the result being that the gross claims of mutual debt produce a single net claim. The net claim i

Securities & exchanges

Shareholder

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

Trading basics

Shareholder Executive

The Shareholder Executive (ShEx) was a body within the UK Government between 2003 and 2016, responsible for managing the government's financial interest in a range of state-owned businesses for commercial rather than political interests. It was part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and staffed by civil servants, many of whom were corporate finance professionals with

Finance

Solvency II

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.

Trading basics

Strategic default

A strategic default is the decision by a borrower to stop making payments (i.e., to default) on a debt, despite having the financial ability to make the payments.

Securities & exchanges

Subordination (finance)

Subordination in banking and finance refers to the order of priorities in claims for ownership or interest in various assets.

Trading basics

Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992

The Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 (c. 12) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which governs the levying of capital gains tax in the United Kingdom. This is a tax on the increase in the value of an asset between the date of purchase and the date of sale of that asset. The tax operates under two different regimes for a natural person and a body corporate.

Trading basics

Title retention clause

A retention of title clause (also called a reservation of title clause or a Romalpa clause in some jurisdictions) is a provision in a contract for the sale of goods that the title to the goods remains vested in the seller until the buyer fulfils certain obligations (usually payment of the purchase price).

Finance

Trade credit insurance

Trade credit insurance, business credit insurance, export credit insurance, or credit insurance is a type of insurance policy and a risk management product offered by private insurance companies and governmental export credit agencies to business entities wishing to protect their accounts receivable from loss due to credit risks such as protracted default, insolvency or bankruptcy. This

Finance

Troika (European group)

The Troika is a term used to refer to the single decision group created by three entities, the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It was formed due to the European debt crisis as an ad hoc authority with a mandate to manage the bailouts of Cyprus, Greece, Ireland and Portugal, in the aftermath of their prospective insolven

Trading basics

Trustee in bankruptcy

A trustee in bankruptcy is an entity, often an individual, in charge of administering a bankruptcy estate.

Trading basics

UAE Exchange

UAE Exchange (Arabic: مركز الإمارات العربية المتحدة للصرافة; Markaz Al'Imarat Alearabiat Almutahidat Lilsarafa) was a United Arab Emirates-based company dealing primarily in remittance, foreign exchange and bill payment services.

Trading basics

Undervalue transaction

An undervalue transaction is a transaction entered into by a company who subsequently goes into bankruptcy which the court orders be set aside, usually upon the application of a liquidator for the benefit of the debtor's creditors. This can occur where the transaction was seriously disadvantageous to the company and the company was insolvent or in immediate risk of becoming insolvent.

Finance

United Kingdom insolvency law

United Kingdom insolvency law regulates companies in the United Kingdom which are unable to repay their debts. While UK bankruptcy law concerns the rules for natural persons, the term insolvency is generally used for companies formed under the Companies Act 2006. Insolvency means being unable to pay debts. Since the Cork Report of 1982, the modern policy of UK insolvency law has been to

Finance

Vendor finance

Vendor finance is a form of lending in which a vendor, instead of a bank or financial institution, lends money to be used by the borrower to buy the vendor's products or property. Vendor finance is usually in the form of deferred loans from, or shares subscribed by, the vendor. The vendor often takes shares in the borrowing company. This category of finance is generally used where the ve

Finance

Virág Blazsek

Virág Blazsek (born February 2, 1980) is a Hungarian and U.S.-trained legal scholar known for her research on financial regulation, bank bailouts, and corporate insolvency.

Finance

Voidable floating charge

In law, a voidable floating charge refers to a floating charge entered into shortly prior to the company going into liquidation which is void or unenforceable in whole or in part under applicable insolvency legislation.