Industry WIKI
Digital assets and currencies
Understand assets, networks and trading mechanics with sources you can check.
2016 Bitfinex hack
The Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange was hacked in August 2016. 119,756 bitcoins, worth about US$72 million at the time, were stolen.
Fiat currenciesAlan Walters
Sir Alan Arthur Walters (17 June 1926 – 3 January 2009) was a British economist who was best known as the Chief Economic Adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from 1981 to 1983 and (following his return from the United States) again for five months in 1989.
AssetsAlexander Browder
Alexander Browder (born 2009) is a British student and financial crime researcher. He is the founder of the Global Cryptocurrency Laundering Database and the author of a 2026 report, published by the Henry Jackson Society, on the alleged use of cryptocurrency networks by sanctioned states to evade Western sanctions. In June 2026, at the age of 17, he was placed on an entry-ban list by th
Fiat currenciesAnn Pettifor
Ann Pettifor (born February 1947) is a British economist who advises governments and organisations. She has published several books. Her work focuses on the global financial system, sovereign debt restructuring, international finance and sustainable development. She was one of the leaders of the Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign.
BankingBanker's right to combine accounts
Under English law, a bank has a general right to combine accounts where a customer has multiple accounts with the same bank. The right has been recognised since at least 1860. However it was not until the 1975 House of Lords decision in National Westminster Bank Ltd v Halesowen Presswork & Assemblies Ltd [1972] AC 785 that it was finally determined that this was a type of set-off righ
BankingC. Hoare & Co
C. Hoare & Co., also known as Hoares, is a British private bank, founded in 1672 by Sir Richard Hoare. A twelfth-generation family business, it is owned by eight of Sir Richard's direct descendants. It is the oldest privately owned bank in the United Kingdom and reputedly the fourth-oldest in continuous operation globally. It is also the second oldest family owned bank in the world after
Payments & settlementCheque and Credit Clearing Company
The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company Limited (C&CCC) is a UK membership-based industry body whose 11 members are the UK clearing banks. The company has managed the cheque clearing system in England and Wales since 1985, in all of Great Britain since 1996 when it took over responsibility for managing the Scottish cheque clearing as well, and in the whole of the United Kingdom since the
BankingChina Consortium
The China Consortium, also referred to as banking consortium or financial consortium or four-, five-, or six-power consortium depending on context, refers to two successive cooperative arrangements formed by foreign banks under their respective governments' directions in the early 20th century, to coordinate lending to the Chinese government. These initiatives were resented by Chinese na
FinanceFinances of the British royal family
The finances of the British royal family come from a number of sources. The monarch and some of his family are supported financially by means of the Sovereign Grant, which comes from the government and is calculated as a percentage of profits from the Crown Estate, and which is intended to meet the costs of the sovereign's official expenditures. This includes the costs of the upkeep of t
Trading basicsGladstone (cat)
Gladstone (born c. December 2014) is a cat who was the resident chief mouser to HM Treasury in Whitehall, London. He is a black domestic short-haired cat, who, at eighteen months old, assumed the position of chief mouser in late June 2016, a position which he served until December 2019. Gladstone's political namesake is former Chancellor and Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, who se
BankingHenry Oberlander
Henry Oberlander (born c. 1927) was the leader of the Hungarian Circle, a gang that defrauded international banks of hundreds of millions of pounds. Following a global investigation, the gang were arrested in 1978 at their headquarters in West London, England. During the trial, the prosecution asserted that the gang "could have wrecked the entire banking system of the Western World". Th
BankingMurashu family
The house of Murashu were a family of businessmen and moneylenders based at Nippur in Babylonia in the fifth century BCE. They left an archive of hundreds of cuneiform texts called the Murashu Archive which is often used to understand business and society in the Achaemenid Empire.
FinanceNilon Limited v Royal Westminster Investments S.A.
Nilon Limited v Royal Westminster Investments S.A. [2015] UKPC 2 (21 January 2015), P.C. (on appeal from the British Virgin Islands) is a leading case of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on the right of a party to seek rectification of a company's share register, and the use of "anchor defendants". The case also included various obiter comments about the doctrine of forum non
FinanceO2 Money
O2 Money was a range of financial services provided by O2 in the United Kingdom.
FinanceRe 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.
FinanceSet-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
BankingStrahan, Paul & Bates
Strahan, Paul & Bates was a London private banking house founded in the 17th century and with a reputation for respectability. The bank failed in 1855 with liabilities eventually estimated at £750,000 (equivalent to £70,000,000 in 2025). The subsequent bankruptcy proceedings revealed that customers' securities had been sold or otherwise disposed of by the partners and the proceeds had be
Trading basicsTo rob Peter to pay Paul
"To rob Peter to pay Paul", and similar variants that have developed over the centuries such as "to borrow from Peter to pay Paul", and "to unclothe Peter to clothe Paul", are English idioms meaning to take from one person to give to another, especially when it results in the elimination of one debt by incurring another. Similar phrases are found in many languages. "Manoeuvring the Apost
Trading basicsTreasury Select Committee
The House of Commons Treasury Committee (often referred to as the Treasury Select Committee) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The committee is responsible for examining and scrutinizing the expenditure, administration and policy of HM Treasury. This includes its agencies and associated bodies, including HM Revenue and Customs, the Ba