Glossary of Industry Terms & Supporting Information

ICON Securities Lending (A – B)

Accounting: Accountancy or accounting is the art of communicating financial information about a business entity to users such as shareholders and managers. The communication is generally in the form of financial statements that show in money terms the economic resources under the control of management.

Such financial information is primarily used by managers, lenders, investors, tax authorities, regulators, and other decision makers to make resource allocation decisions between and within companies, organizations, and public agencies. It involves the process of recording, verifying, and reporting of the value of assets, liabilities, income, and expenses in the books of account (ledger) to which debit and credit entries (recognizing transactions) are chronologically posted to record changes in value (see bookkeeping). Accounting has also been defined by the AICPA as “The art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are, in part at least, of financial character, and interpreting the results thereof.

Accredited investor: is a term defined by various securities laws that delineates investors permitted to invest in certain types of higher risk investments, limited partnerships, hedge funds, and angel investor networks. The term generally includes wealthy individuals and organizations such as a corporation, endowment, or retirement plans.

In the United States, for an individual to be considered an accredited investor, they must have a net worth of at least one million US dollars or have made at least $200,000 each year for the last two years ($300,000 with his or her spouse if married) and have the expectation to make the same amount this year.”  This rule came into effect in 1933 by way of the Securities Act of 1933.

In Canada, the same prerequisites apply, however one’s net worth must be a minimum of one million dollars not including the value of the principal residence.

Actively Traded Securities: Securities that have a current worldwide average daily trading volume over 60 consecutive calendar days (ADTV) of at least $1 million and an issuer with common equity securities having a public float value of at least $150 million. This condition is used for an exemption from Regulation M, which restricts the trading of an existing security by participants in a public offering of that security.

Affiliated Persons, aka Insiders: An insider is a member of any group of people of limited number and generally restricted access. The term is used in the context of secret, privileged, hidden or otherwise esoteric information or knowledge: an insider is a “member of the gang” and as such knows things only people in the gang know.

In finance, Insiders would be persons (individuals, corporations, trusts, etc.) in a position to influence a corporation’s decisions.  This includes officers, directors, and principal stockholders (those with 10% ownership or more) of the corporation, and their immediate families.

In our complicated and information-rich world, the concept of insider knowledge is popular and pervasive, as a source of direct and useful guidance. In a given situation, an insider is contrasted with an outside expert: the expert can provide an in-depth theoretical analysis that should lead to a practical opinion, while an insider has firsthand, material knowledge. Insider information may be thought of as more accurate and valuable than expert opinion.

Agent: In Real Estate, an Agent is someone who acts for another. When a RE firm acts as agent, it is acting as a broker, bringing together a buyer and a seller. As agent it does not buy or sell for its own account.  An Agent in Commercial Law is a person who is authorized to act on behalf of another (called the Principal or client) to create a legal relationship with a Third Party. Agency law deals with the tripartite relationship between:

• Agents and Principals;
• Agents and the Third Parties with whom they deal on their Principals’ behalf; and
• Principals and the Third Parties when the Agents deal on their behalf.

Agency: Agency is an area of commercial law dealing with a contractual or quasi-contractual tripartite, or non-contractual set of relationships when an agent is authorized to act on behalf of another (called the Principal) to create a legal relationship with a Third Party. Succinctly, it may be referred to as the relationship between a principal and an agent whereby the principal, expressly or impliedly, authorizes the agent to work under his control and on his behalf. The agent is, thus, required to negotiate on behalf of the principal or bring him and third parties into contractual relationship.

Agency transactions: In Real Estate, this would involve transactions in which a RE broker acts only as an agent for the customer, putting together a buyer and a seller, or a mortgage broker coordinates a mortgage loan and makes a commission.

American Depository Receipt: An American Depositary Receipt (or ADR) represents ownership in the shares of a non-U.S. company and trades in U.S. financial markets. The stock of many non-US companies trade on US stock exchanges through the use of ADRs. ADRs enable U.S. investors to buy shares in foreign companies without the hazards or inconveniences of cross-border & cross-currency transactions. ADRs carry prices in US dollars, pay dividends in US dollars, and can be traded like the shares of US-based companies.

Each ADR is issued by a U.S. depositary bank and can represent a fraction of a share, a single share, or multiple shares of the foreign stock. An owner of an ADR has the right to obtain the foreign stock it represents, but US investors usually find it more convenient simply to own the ADR. The price of an ADR often tracks the price of the foreign stock in its home market, adjusted for the ratio of ADRs to foreign company shares. In the case of companies incorporated in the United Kingdom, creation of ADRs attracts a 1.5% stamp duty reserve tax (SDRT) charge by the UK government.

Depositary banks have various responsibilities to an ADR shareholder and to the non-US company the ADR represents. The first ADR was introduced by JPMorgan in 1927, for the British retailer Selfridges & Co. There are currently four major commercial banks that provide depositary bank services – JPMorgan, Citibank, Deutsche Bank and the Bank of New York Mellon.

Individual shares of a foreign corporation represented by an ADR are called American Depositary Shares (ADS).

American Depository Share: An American Depositary Share (“ADS”) is a vehicle for foreign corporations to list their ordinary equity on an American stock exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ.

Foreign corporations listed in other markets are not permitted to make direct secondary listings in the United States markets, thus this form of indirect ownership has been devised.

ADSs are U.S. dollar denominated and each share represents one or more underlying shares in the subject. These ADSs confer full rights of ownership (including dividends, voting rights) to these underlying shares, which are held on deposit by a custodian bank in the company’s home country or territory.

American Stock Exchange (AMEX): NYSE Amex Equities, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) is an American stock exchange situated in New York. AMEX was a mutual organization, owned by its members. This is the second largest traditional stock exchange, based in New York City. Until 1953 it was known as the New York Curb Exchange. On January 17, 2008 NYSE Euronext announced it would acquire the American Stock Exchange for $260 million in stock. On October 1, 2008, NYSE Euronext completed acquisition of the American Stock Exchange. Before the closing of the acquisition, NYSE Euronext announced that the Exchange will be integrated with Alternext European small-cap exchange and renamed NYSE Alternext U.S. In March 2009, NYSE Alternext U.S. was again rebranded to NYSE Amex Equities.

Angel investor: An angel investor or angel (also known as a business angel or informal investor) is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networks to share research and pool their investment capital.

Annuity: The term annuity is used in finance theory to refer to any terminating stream of fixed payments over a specified period of time. This usage is most commonly seen in discussions of finance, usually in connection with the valuation of the stream of payments, taking into account time value of money concepts such as interest rate and future value.

Examples of annuities are regular deposits to a savings account, monthly home mortgage payments and monthly insurance payments. Annuities are classified by payment dates. The payments (deposits) may be made weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, or at any other interval of time.

Arbitration: A method of settling disputes. Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, wherein the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons (the “arbitrators”, “arbiters” or “arbitral tribunal“), by whose decision (the “award“) they agree to be bound. It is a settlement technique in which a third party reviews the case and imposes a decision that is legally binding for both sides. Other forms of ADR include mediation (a form of settlement negotiation facilitated by a neutral third party) and non-binding resolution by experts. It is more helpful, however, simply to classify arbitration as a form of binding dispute resolution, equivalent to litigation in the courts, and entirely distinct from the other forms of dispute resolution, such as negotiation, mediation, or determinations by experts, which are usually non-binding.

Arbitration is most commonly used for the resolution of commercial disputes, particularly in the context of international commercial transactions. The use of arbitration is far more controversial in consumer and employment matters, where arbitration is not voluntary but is instead imposed on consumers or employees through fine-print contracts, denying individuals of their right to access the courts.

Arbitration can be either voluntary or mandatory and can be either binding or non-binding. Non-binding arbitration is, on the surface, similar to mediation. However, the principal distinction is that whereas a mediator will try to help the parties find a middle ground on which to compromise, the (non-binding) arbitrator remains totally removed from the settlement process and will only give a determination of liability and, if appropriate, an indication of the quantum of damages payable.

Ask price: Ask price, also called offer price, offer, asking price, or simply ask, is a price a seller of a good is willing to accept for that particular good.

In bid and ask, the term “ask price” is used in contrast to the term bid price. The difference between the ask price and the bid price is called the spread.

With securities this is the lowest price a seller of a security is willing to take for a unit of a security at a particular time. (Note that the OTC market uses the term “asked,” while the exchanges use the term “offered” or “offering.”)

Asset: In business and accounting, assets are economic resources owned by business or company. Anything tangible or intangible that one possesses, usually considered as applicable to the payment of one’s debts is considered an asset. Simplistically stated, assets are things of value that can be readily converted into cash (although cash itself is also considered an asset).  The balance sheet of a firm records the monetary value of the assets owned by the firm. It is money and other valuables belonging to an individual or business.

Two major asset classes are tangible assets and intangible assets. Tangible assets contain various subclasses, including current assets and fixed assets.  Current assets include inventory, while fixed assets include such items as buildings and equipment.  Intangible assets are nonphysical resources and rights that have a value to the firm because they give the firm some kind of advantage in the market place. Examples of intangible assets are goodwill, copyrights, trademarks, patents and computer programs, and financial assets, including such items as accounts receivable, bonds and stocks.

Asset characteristics

Assets have three essential characteristics:

• The probable present benefit involves a capacity, singly or in combination with other assets, in the case of profit oriented enterprises, to contribute directly or indirectly to future net cash flows, and, in the case of not-for-profit organizations, to provide services;
• The entity can control access to the benefit;
• The transaction or event giving rise to the entity’s right to, or control of, the benefit has already occurred.

It is not necessary, in the financial accounting sense of the term, for control of assets to the benefit to be legally enforceable for a resource to be an asset, provided the entity can control its use by other means.

It is important to understand that in an accounting sense an asset is not the same as ownership. Assets are equal to “equity” plus “liabilities.”

The accounting equation relates assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity:

Assets = Liabilities +Stockholder’s Equity(Owners’ Equity)

The accounting equation is the mathematical structure of the balance sheet.

Assets are listed on the balance sheet. Similarly, in economics an asset is any form in which wealth can be held.

Probably the most accepted accounting definition of asset is the one used by the International Accounting Standards Board .  The following is a quotation from the IFRS Framework: “An asset is a resource controlled by the enterprise as a result of past events and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the enterprise.”

Assets are formally controlled and managed within larger organizations via the use of asset tracking tools. These monitor the purchasing, upgrading, servicing, licensing, disposal etc., of both physical and non-physical assets.^{[clarification needed]} In a company’s balance sheet certain divisions are required by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which vary from country to country.

Current assets

Main article: Current asset

Current assets are cash and other assets expected to be converted to cash, sold, or consumed either in a year or in the operating cycle. These assets are continually turned over in the course of a business during normal business activity. There are 5 major items included into current assets:

1. Cash and cash equivalents — it is the most liquid asset, which includes currency, deposit accounts, and negotiable instruments (e.g., money orders, cheque, bank drafts).
2. Short-term investments — include securities bought and held for sale in the near future to generate income on short-term price differences (trading securities).
3. Receivables — usually reported as net of allowance for uncollectable accounts.
4. Inventory — trading these assets is a normal business of a company. The inventory value reported on the balance sheet is usually the historical cost or fair market value, whichever is lower. This is known as the “lower of cost or market” rule.
5. Prepaid expenses — these are expenses paid in cash and recorded as assets before they are used or consumed (a common example is insurance). See also adjusting entries.

The phrase net current assets (also called working capital) is often used and refers to the total of current assets less the total of current liabilities.

Long-term investments

Often referred to simply as “investments”. Long-term investments are to be held for many years and are not intended to be disposed in the near future. This group usually consists of four types of investments:

1. Investments in securities, such as bonds, common stock, or long-term notes.
2. Investments in fixed assets not used in operations (e.g., land held for sale).
3. Investments in special funds (e.g., sinking funds or pension funds).

Different forms of insurance may also be treated as long term investments.

Fixed assets

Main article: Fixed asset

Also referred to as PPE (property, plant, and equipment), these are purchased for continued and long-term use in earning profit in a business. This group includes land, buildings, machinery, furniture, tools, and certain wasting resources e.g., timberland and minerals. They are written off against profits over their anticipated life by charging depreciation expenses (with exception of land). Accumulated depreciation is shown in the face of the balance sheet or in the notes.

These are also called capital assets in management accounting.

Intangible assets

Main article: Intangible asset

Intangible assets lack physical substance and usually are very hard to evaluate. They include patents, copyrights, franchises, goodwill, trademarks, trade names, etc. These assets are (according to US GAAP) amortized to expense over 5 to 40 years with the exception of goodwill.

Websites are treated differently in different countries and may fall under either tangible or intangible assets.

Tangible assets

Tangible assets are those that have a physical substance, such as equipment and real estate.

Asset-backet security: An asset-backed security is a security whose value and income payments are derived from and collateralized (or “backed”) by a specified pool of underlying assets. The pool of assets is typically a group of small and illiquid assets that are unable to be sold individually. Pooling the assets into financial instruments allows them to be sold to general investors, a process called securitization, and allows the risk of investing in the underlying assets to be diversified because each security will represent a fraction of the total value of the diverse pool of underlying assets. The pools of underlying assets can include common payments from credit cards, auto loans, and mortgage loans, to esoteric cash flows from aircraft leases, royalty payments and movie revenues.

Often a separate institution, called a special purpose vehicle, is created to handle the securitization of asset backed securities. The special purpose vehicle, which creates and sells the securities, uses the proceeds of the sale to pay back the bank that created, or originated, the underlying assets. The special purpose vehicle is responsible for “bundling” the underlying assets into a specified pool that will fit the risk preferences and other needs of investors who might want to buy the securities, for managing credit risk—often by transferring it to an insurance company after paying a premium—and for distributing payments from the securities. As long as the credit risk of the underlying assets is transferred to another institution, the originating bank removes the value of the underlying assets from its balance sheet and receives cash in return as the asset backed securities are sold, a transaction which can improve its credit rating and reduce the amount of capital that it needs. In this case, a credit rating of the asset backed securities would be based only on the assets and liabilities of the special purpose vehicle, and this rating could be higher than if the originating bank issued the securities because the risk of the asset backed securities would no longer be associated with other risks that the originating bank might bear. A higher credit rating could allow the special purpose vehicle and, by extension, the originating institution to pay a lower interest rate (that is, charge a higher price) on the asset-backed securities than if the originating institution borrowed funds or issued bonds.

Thus, one incentive for banks to create securitized assets is to remove risky assets from their balance sheet by having another institution assume the credit risk, so that they (the banks) receive cash in return. This allows banks to invest more of their capital in new loans or other assets and possibly have a lower capital requirement.

Structure

On January 18, 2005, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) promulgated Regulation AB which included a final definition of Asset-Back Securities.

“Definition of ABS. The term “asset-backed security” is currently defined in Form S-3 to mean a security that is primarily serviced by the cash flows of a discrete pool of receivables or other financial assets, either fixed or revolving, that by their terms convert into cash within a finite time period plus any rights or other assets designed to assure the servicing or timely distribution of proceeds to the security holders. The SEC has interpreted the phrase “convert into cash by their terms” to exclude most assets that require active behavior to acquire cash – such as the selling of non-performing assets and physical property. It has also interpreted the phrase “discrete pool” to exclude those that can change in composition over time.

• Lease-Backed Securities. The new rule expands the definition of “asset-backed security” to include lease-backed securities as long as the residual value of the leased property is less than 50% of the original securitized pool balance (or less than 65% in the case of motor vehicle leases). However, such securities may be shelf-registered on Form S-3 only if the residual value of the leased property represents less than 20% of the original securitized pool balance (or less than 65% in the case of motor vehicle leases).
• Delinquent and Non-performing Assets. The new rules provide that a security may be considered to be an “asset-backed security” even if the underlying asset pool has total delinquencies of up to 50% at the time of the proposed offering as long as the original asset pool does not include any “non-performing” assets. However, consistent with current practice, shelf registration on Form S-3 will be available only if delinquent assets constitute 20% or less of the original asset pool. An asset is considered to be non-performing if it satisfies the charge-off policies of the sponsor (or applicable bank regulatory agencies) or if it would be considered a charged-off asset under the terms of the applicable transaction documents.
• Exceptions to the “Discrete Pool” Requirement. The new rules generally codify the SEC staff’s position that a security must be backed by a discrete pool of assets in order to be considered an ABS. However, the new rules establish the following exceptions to address market practices.

(1) Any security issued in a master trust structure would meet the definition of “asset-backed security” without limitation.

(2) “asset-backed securities” will also include securities with a prefunding period of up to one year during which up to 50% of the offering proceeds (or, in the case of master trusts, up to 50% of the aggregate principal balance of the total asset pool whose cash flows support the ABS) may be used for subsequent purchases of pool assets.

(3) The new rules also include within the definition of “asset-backed security” securities with revolving periods during which new financial assets may be acquired. In the case of revolving assets such as credit cards, dealer floorplan and home equity lines of credit, there is no limit to the length of the revolving period or the amount of new assets that can be purchased during that time. For securities backed by receivables or other financial assets that do not arise under revolving accounts, such as automobile loans and mortgage loans, an unlimited revolving period will be permitted for up to three years. However, the new assets added to the pool during the revolving period must be of the same general character as the original pool assets.

According to Thomson Financial League Tables, US issuance (excluding mortgage-backed securities) was:

• 2004: USD 857 billion (1,595 issues)
• 2003: USD 581 billion (1,175 issues)

Types

Home equity loans

Securities collateralized by home equity loans (HELs) are currently the largest asset class within the ABS market. Investors typically refer to HELs as any nonagency loans that do not fit into either the jumbo or alt-A loan categories. While early HELs were mostly second lien subprime mortgages, first-lien loans now make up the majority of issuance. Subprime mortgage borrowers have a less than perfect credit history and are required to pay interest rates higher than what would be available to a typical agency borrower. In addition to first and second-lien loans, other HE loans can consist of high loan to value (LTV) loans, re-performing loans, scratch and dent loans, or open-ended home equity lines of credit (HELOC),which homeowners use as a method to consolidate debt. 

Auto loans

The second largest subsector in the ABS market is auto loans. Auto finance companies issue securities backed by underlying pools of auto-related loans. Auto ABS are classified into three categories: prime, nonprime, and subprime:

• Prime auto ABS are collateralized by loans made to borrowers with strong credit histories.
• Nonprime auto ABS consist of loans made to lesser credit quality consumers, which may have   higher cumulative losses.
• Subprime borrowers will typically have lower incomes, tainted credited histories, or both.

Owner trusts are the most common structure used when issuing auto loans and allow investors to receive interest and principal on sequential basis. Deals can also be structured to pay on a pro-rata or combination of the two.

Credit card receivables

Securities backed by credit card receivables have been benchmark for the ABS market since they were first introduced in 1987. Credit card holders may borrow funds on a revolving basis up to an assigned credit limit. The borrowers then pay principal and interest as desired, along with the required minimum monthly payments. Because principal repayment is not scheduled, credit card debt does not have an actual maturity date and is considered a non amortizing loan.

ABS backed by credit card receivables are issued out of trusts that have evolved over time from discrete trusts to various types of master trusts of which the most common is the de-linked master trust. Discrete trusts consist of a fixed or static pool of receivables that are tranched into senior/subordinated bonds. A master trust has the advantage of offering multiple deals out of the same trust as the number of receivables grows, each of which is entitled to a pro-rata share of all of the receivables. The delinked structures allow the issuer to separate the senior and subordinate series within a trust and issue them at different points in time. The latter two structures allow investors to benefit from a larger pool of loans made over time rather than one static pool.

Student loans

ABS collateralized by student loans (“SLABS”) comprise one of the four (along with home equity loans, auto loans and credit card receivables) core asset classes financed through asset-backed securitizations and are a benchmark subsector for most floating rate indices. Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans are the most common form of student loans and are guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Education (“DOE”) at rates ranging from 95%-98% (if the student loan is serviced by a servicer designated as an “exceptional performer” by the DOE the reimbursement rate was up to 100%). As a result, performance (other than high cohort default rates in the late 1980′s) has historically been very good and investors rate of return has been excellent. The College Cost Reduction and Access Act became effective on October 1, 2007 and significantly changed the economics for FFELP loans; lender special allowance payments were reduced, the exceptional performer designation was revoked, lender insurance rates were reduced, and the lender paid origination fees were doubled.

A second, and faster growing, portion of the student loan market consists of non-FFELP or private student loans. Though borrowing limits on certain types of FFELP loans were slightly increased by the student loan bill referenced above, essentially static borrowing limits for FFELP loans and increasing tuition are driving students to search for alternative lenders. Students utlilize private loans to bridge the gap between amounts that can be borrowed through federal programs and the remaining costs of education.

The United States Congress created the Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae) as a government sponsored enterprise to purchase student loans in the secondary market and to securitize pools of student loans. Since its first issuance in 1995, Sallie Mae is now the major issuer of SLABS and its issues are viewed as the benchmark issues.

Stranded cost utilities

Rate reduction bonds (RRBs) came about as the result of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which was designed to increase competition in the US electricity market. To avoid any disruptions while moving from a non-competitive to a competitive market, regulators have allowed utilities to recover certain “transition costs” over a period of time. These costs are considered nonbypassable and are added to all customer bills. Since consumers usually pay utility bills before any other, charge-offs have historically been low. RRBs offerings are typically large enough to create reasonable liquidity in the aftermarket, and average life extension is limited by a “true up” mechanism.

Others

There are many other cash-flow-producing assets, including manufactured housing loans, equipment leases and loans, aircraft leases, trade receivables, dealer floor plan loans, and royalties. ^[2] Intangibles are another emerging asset class.

Trading asset-backed securities

“In the United States, the process for issuing asset-backed securities in the primary market is similar to that of issuing other securities, such as corporate bonds, and is governed by the Securities Act of 1933, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Publicly issued asset-backed securities have to satisfy standard SEC registration and disclosure requirements, and have to file periodic financial statements.”

“The Process of trading asset-backed securities in the secondary market is similar to that of trading corporate bonds, and also to some extent, mortgage-backed securities. Most of the trading is done in over-the-counter markets, with telephone quotes on a security basis. There appear to be no publicly available measures of trading volume, or of number of dealers trading in these securities.”

“A survey by the Bond Market Association shows that at the end of 2004, in the United States and Europe there were 74 electronic trading platforms for trading fixed-income securities and derivatives, with 5 platforms for asset-backed securities in the United States, and 8 in Europe.”

“Discussions with market participants show that compared to Treasury securities and mortgage-backed securities, many asset-backed securities are not liquid, and their prices are not transparent. This is partly because asset-backed securities are not as standardized as Treasury securities, or even mortgage-backed securities, and investors have to evaluate the different structures, maturity profiles, credit enhancements, and other features of an asset-backed security before trading it.”

The “price” of an asset-backed security is usually quoted as a spread to a corresponding swap rate. For example, the price of a credit card-backed, AAA rated security with a two-year maturity by a benchmark issuer might be quoted at 5 basis points (or less) to the two-year swap rate.”

“Indeed, market participants sometimes view the highest-rated credit card and automobile securities as having default risk close to that of the highest-rated mortgage-backed securities, which are reportedly viewed as substitute for the default risk-free Treasury securities.”

Securitization

Main article: Securitization transaction

Securitization is the process of creating asset-backed securities by transferring assets from the issuing company to a bankruptcy remote entity. Credit enhancement is an integral component of this process as it creates a security that has a higher rating than the issuing company, which allows the issuing company to monetize its assets while paying a lower rate of interest than would be possible via a secured bank loan or debt issuance by the issuing company.

At-the-money (ATM): An option is at-the-money if the strike price is the same as the spot price of the underlying security on which the option is written. An at-the-money option has no intrinsic value, only time value.

Arbitrage: In economics and finance, arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a price differential between two or more markets: striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices. When used by academics, an arbitrage is a transaction that involves no negative cash flow at any probabilistic or temporal state and a positive cash flow in at least one state; in simple terms, a risk-free profit. A person who engages in arbitrage is called an arbitrageur—such as a bank or brokerage firm. The term is mainly applied to trading in financial instruments, such as bonds, stocks, derivatives, commodities and currencies.

If the market prices do not allow for profitable arbitrage, the prices are said to constitute an arbitrage equilibrium or arbitrage-free market. An arbitrage equilibrium is a precondition for a general economic equilibrium. The assumption that there is no arbitrage is used in quantitative finance to calculate a unique risk neutral price for derivatives.

Statistical arbitrage is an imbalance in expected nominal values. A casino has a statistical arbitrage in almost every game of chance that it offers—referred to as the house advantage, house edge, vigorish or house vigorish.

Conditions for arbitrage

Arbitrage is possible when one of three conditions is met:

1. The same asset does not trade at the same price on all markets (“the law of one price“).
2. Two assets with identical cash flows do not trade at the same price.
3. An asset with a known price in the future does not today trade at its future price discounted at the risk-free interest rate (or, the asset does not have negligible costs of storage; as such, for example, this condition holds for grain but not for securities).

Arbitrage is not simply the act of buying a product in one market and selling it in another for a higher price at some later time. The transactions must occur simultaneously to avoid exposure to market risk, or the risk that prices may change on one market before both transactions are complete. In practical terms, this is generally only possible with securities and financial products which can be traded electronically, and even then, when each leg of the trade is executed the prices in the market may have moved. Missing one of the legs of the trade (and subsequently having to trade it soon after at a worse price) is called ‘execution risk’ or more specifically ‘leg risk’.

In the most simple example, any good sold in one market should sell for the same price in another. Traders may, for example, find that the price of wheat is lower in agricultural regions than in cities, purchase the good, and transport it to another region to sell at a higher price. This type of price arbitrage is the most common, but this simple example ignores the cost of transport, storage, risk, and other factors. “True” arbitrage requires that there be no market risk involved. Where securities are traded on more than one exchange, arbitrage occurs by simultaneously buying in one and selling on the other.

See rational pricing, particularly arbitrage mechanics, for further discussion.

Mathematically it is defined as follows:

and

where V_t means a portfolio at time t.

Examples

• Suppose that the exchange rates (after taking out the fees for making the exchange) in London are £5 = $10 = ¥1000 and the exchange rates in Tokyo are ¥1000 = $12 = £6. Converting ¥1000 to $12 in Tokyo and converting that $12 into ¥1200 in London, for a profit of ¥200, would be arbitrage. In reality, this “triangle arbitrage” is so simple that it almost never occurs. But more complicated foreign exchange arbitrages, such as the spot-forward arbitrage (see interest rate parity) are much more common.
• One example of arbitrage involves the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. When the price of a stock on the NYSE and its corresponding futures contract on the CME are out of sync, one can buy the less expensive one and sell it to the more expensive market. Because the differences between the prices are likely to be small (and not to last very long), this can only be done profitably with computers examining a large number of prices and automatically exercising a trade when the prices are far enough out of balance. The activity of other arbitrageurs can make this risky. Those with the fastest computers and the most expertise take advantage of series of small differentials that would not be profitable if taken individually.
• Economists use the term “global labor arbitrage” to refer to the tendency of manufacturing jobs to flow towards whichever country has the lowest wages per unit output at present and has reached the minimum requisite level of political and economic development to support industrialization. At present, many such jobs appear to be flowing towards China, though some which require command of English are going to India and the Philippines. In popular terms, this is referred to as offshoring. (Note that “offshoring” is not synonymous with “outsourcing”, which means “to subcontract from an outside supplier or source”, such as when a business outsources its bookkeeping to an accounting firm. Unlike offshoring, outsourcing always involves subcontracting jobs to a different company, and that company can be in the same country as the outsourcing company.)
• Sports arbitrage – numerous internet bookmakers offer odds on the outcome of the same event. Any given bookmaker will weight their odds so that no one customer can cover all outcomes at a profit against their books. However, in order to remain competitive their margins are usually quite low. Different bookmakers may offer different odds on the same outcome of a given event; by taking the best odds offered by each bookmaker, a customer can under some circumstances cover all possible outcomes of the event and lock a small risk-free profit, known as a Dutch book. This profit would typically be between 1% and 5% but can be much higher. One problem with sports arbitrage is that bookmakers sometimes make mistakes and this can lead to an invocation of the ‘palpable error’ rule, which most bookmakers invoke when they have made a mistake by offering or posting incorrect odds. As bookmakers become more proficient, the odds of making an ‘arb’ usually last for less than an hour and typically only a few minutes. Furthermore, huge bets on one side of the market also alert the bookies to correct the market.
• Exchange-traded fund arbitrage – Exchange Traded Funds allow authorized participants to exchange back and forth between shares in underlying securities held by the fund and shares in the fund itself, rather than allowing the buying and selling of shares in the ETF directly with the fund sponsor. ETFs trade in the open market, with prices set by market demand. An ETF may trade at a premium or discount to the value of the underlying assets. When a significant enough premium appears, an arbitrageur will buy the underlying securities, convert them to shares in the ETF, and sell them in the open market. When a discount appears, an arbitrageur will do the reverse. In this way, the arbitrageur makes a low-risk profit, while fulfilling a useful function in the ETF marketplace by keeping ETF prices in line with their underlying value.
• Some types of hedge funds make use of a modified form of arbitrage to profit. Rather than exploiting price differences between identical assets, they will purchase and sell securities, assets and derivatives with similar characteristics, and hedge any significant differences between the two assets. Any difference between the hedged positions represents any remaining risk (such as basis risk) plus profit; the belief is that there remains some difference which, even after hedging most risk, represents pure profit. For example, a fund may see that there is a substantial difference between U.S. dollar debt and local currency debt of a foreign country, and enter into a series of matching trades (including currency swaps) to arbitrage the difference, while simultaneously entering into credit default swaps to protect against country risk and other types of specific risk.

Price convergence

Arbitrage has the effect of causing prices in different markets to converge. As a result of arbitrage, the currency exchange rates, the price of commodities, and the price of securities in different markets tend to converge to the same prices, in all markets, in each category. The speed at which prices converge is a measure of market efficiency. Arbitrage tends to reduce price discrimination by encouraging people to buy an item where the price is low and resell it where the price is high, as long as the buyers are not prohibited from reselling and the transaction costs of buying, holding and reselling are small relative to the difference in prices in the different markets.

Arbitrage moves different currencies toward purchasing power parity. As an example, assume that a car purchased in the United States is cheaper than the same car in Canada. Canadians would buy their cars across the border to exploit the arbitrage condition. At the same time, Americans would buy US cars, transport them across the border, and sell them in Canada. Canadians would have to buy American Dollars to buy the cars, and Americans would have to sell the Canadian dollars they received in exchange for the exported cars. Both actions would increase demand for US Dollars, and supply of Canadian Dollars, and as a result, there would be an appreciation of the US Dollar. Eventually, if unchequeed, this would make US cars more expensive for all buyers, and Canadian cars cheaper, until there is no longer an incentive to buy cars in the US and sell them in Canada. More generally, international arbitrage opportunities in commodities, goods, securities and currencies, on a grand scale, tend to change exchange rates until the purchasing power is equal.

In reality, of course, one must consider taxes and the costs of travelling back and forth between the US and Canada. Also, the features built into the cars sold in the US are not exactly the same as the features built into the cars for sale in Canada, due, among other things, to the different emissions and other auto regulations in the two countries. In addition, our example assumes that no duties have to be paid on importing or exporting cars from the USA to Canada. Similarly, most assets exhibit (small) differences between countries, transaction costs, taxes, and other costs provide an impediment to this kind of arbitrage.

Similarly, arbitrage affects the difference in interest rates paid on government bonds, issued by the various countries, given the expected depreciations in the currencies, relative to each other (see interest rate parity).

Risks

Arbitrage transactions in modern securities markets involve fairly low risks. Generally it is impossible to close two or three transactions at the same instant; therefore, there is the possibility that when one part of the deal is closed, a quick shift in prices makes it impossible to close the other at a profitable price. There is also counter-party risk, that the other party to one of the deals fails to deliver as agreed; though unlikely, this hazard is serious because of the large quantities one must trade in order to make a profit on small price differences. These risks become magnified when leverage or borrowed money is used.

Another risk occurs if the items being bought and sold are not identical and the arbitrage is conducted under the assumption that the prices of the items are correlated or predictable. In the extreme case this is risk arbitrage, described below. In comparison to the classical quick arbitrage transaction, such an operation can produce disastrous losses.

Competition in the marketplace can also create risks during arbitrage transactions. As an example, if one was trying to profit from a price discrepancy between IBM on the NYSE and IBM on the London Stock Exchange, they may purchase a large number of shares on the NYSE and find that they cannot simultaneously sell on the LSE. This leaves the arbitrageur in an unhedged risk position.

In the 1980s, risk arbitrage was common. In this form of speculation, one trades a security that is clearly undervalued or overvalued, when it is seen that the wrong valuation is about to be corrected by events. The standard example is the stock of a company, undervalued in the stock market, which is about to be the object of a takeover bid; the price of the takeover will more truly reflect the value of the company, giving a large profit to those who bought at the current price—if the merger goes through as predicted. Traditionally, arbitrage transactions in the securities markets involve high speed and low risk. At some moment a price difference exists, and the problem is to execute two or three balancing transactions while the difference persists (that is, before the other arbitrageurs act). When the transaction involves a delay of weeks or months, as above, it may entail considerable risk if borrowed money is used to magnify the reward through leverage. One way of reducing the risk is through the illegal use of inside information, and in fact risk arbitrage with regard to leveraged buyouts was associated with some of the famous financial scandals of the 1980s such as those involving Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky.

Types of arbitrage

Merger arbitrage

Also called risk arbitrage, merger arbitrage generally consists of buying the stock of a company that is the target of a takeover while shorting the stock of the acquiring company.

Usually the market price of the target company is less than the price offered by the acquiring company. The spread between these two prices depends mainly on the probability and the timing of the takeover being completed as well as the prevailing level of interest rates.

The bet in a merger arbitrage is that such a spread will eventually be zero, if and when the takeover is completed. The risk is that the deal “breaks” and the spread massively widens.

Municipal bond arbitrage

Also called municipal bond relative value arbitrage, municipal arbitrage, or just muni arb, this hedge fund strategy involves one of two approaches.

Generally, managers seek relative value opportunities by being both long and short municipal bonds with a duration-neutral book. The relative value trades may be between different issuers, different bonds issued by the same entity, or capital structure trades referencing the same asset (in the case of revenue bonds). Managers aim to capture the inefficiencies arising from the heavy participation of non-economic investors (i.e., high income “buy and hold” investors seeking tax-exempt income) as well as the “crossover buying” arising from corporations’ or individuals’ changing income tax situations (i.e., insurers switching their munis for corporates after a large loss as they can capture a higher after-tax yield by offsetting the taxable corporate income with underwriting losses). There are additional inefficiencies arising from the highly fragmented nature of the municipal bond market which has two million outstanding issues and 50,000 issuers in contrast to the Treasury market which has 400 issues and a single issuer.

Second, managers construct leveraged portfolios of AAA- or AA-rated tax-exempt municipal bonds with the duration risk hedged by shorting the appropriate ratio of taxable corporate bonds. These corporate equivalents are typically interest rate swaps referencing Libor or SIFMA(Security Industry and Financial Markets Association) (merged with and preceded by BMA (short for Bond Market Association)). The arbitrage manifests itself in the form of a relatively cheap longer maturity municipal bond, which is a municipal bond that yields significantly more than 65% of a corresponding taxable corporate bond. The steeper slope of the municipal yield curve allows participants to collect more after-tax income from the municipal bond portfolio than is spent on the interest rate swap; the carry is greater than the hedge expense. Positive, tax-free carry from muni arb can reach into the double digits. The bet in this municipal bond arbitrage is that, over a longer period of time, two similar instruments–municipal bonds and interest rate swaps–will correlate with each other; they are both very high quality credits, have the same maturity and are denominated in U.S. dollars. Credit risk and duration risk are largely eliminated in this strategy. However, basis risk arises from use of an imperfect hedge, which results in significant, but range-bound principal volatility. The end goal is to limit this principal volatility, eliminating its relevance over time as the high, consistent, tax-free cash flow accumulates. Since the inefficiency is related to government tax policy, and hence is structural in nature, it has not been arbitraged away.

Convertible bond arbitrage

A convertible bond is a bond that an investor can return to the issuing company in exchange for a predetermined number of shares in the company.

A convertible bond can be thought of as a corporate bond with a stock call option attached to it.

The price of a convertible bond is sensitive to three major factors:

• interest rate. When rates move higher, the bond part of a convertible bond tends to move lower, but the call option part of a convertible bond moves higher (and the aggregate tends to move lower).
• stock price. When the price of the stock the bond is convertible into moves higher, the price of the bond tends to rise.
• credit spread. If the creditworthiness of the issuer deteriorates (e.g. rating downgrade) and its credit spread widens, the bond price tends to move lower, but, in many cases, the call option part of the convertible bond moves higher (since credit spread correlates with volatility).

Given the complexity of the calculations involved and the convoluted structure that a convertible bond can have, an arbitrageur often relies on sophisticated quantitative models in order to identify bonds that are trading cheap versus their theoretical value.

Convertible arbitrage consists of buying a convertible bond and hedging two of the three factors in order to gain exposure to the third factor at a very attractive price.

For instance an arbitrageur would first buy a convertible bond, then sell fixed income securities or interest rate futures (to hedge the interest rate exposure) and buy some credit protection (to hedge the risk of credit deterioration). Eventually what he’d be left with is something similar to a call option on the underlying stock, acquired at a very low price. He could then make money either selling some of the more expensive options that are openly traded in the market or delta hedging his exposure to the underlying shares.

Depository receipts

A depository receipt is a security that is offered as a “tracking stock” on another foreign market. For instance a Chinese company wishing to raise more money may issue a depository receipt on the New York Stock Exchange, as the amount of capital on the local exchanges is limited. These securities, known as ADRs (American Depositary Receipt) or GDRs (Global Depositary Receipt) depending on where they are issued, are typically considered “foreign” and therefore trade at a lower value when first released. However, they are exchangeable into the original security (known as fungibility) and actually have the same value. In this case there is a spread between the perceived value and real value, which can be extracted. Since the ADR is trading at a value lower than what it is worth, one can purchase the ADR and expect to make money as its value converges on the original. However there is a chance that the original stock will fall in value too, so by shorting it you can hedge that risk.

Dual-listed companies

A dual-listed company (DLC) structure involves two companies incorporated in different countries contractually agreeing to operate their businesses as if they were a single enterprise, while retaining their separate legal identity and existing stock exchange listings. In integrated and efficient financial markets, stock prices of the twin pair should move in lockstep. In practice, DLC share prices exhibit large deviations from theoretical parity. Arbitrage positions in DLCs can be set-up by obtaining a long position in the relatively underpriced part of the DLC and a short position in the relatively overpriced part. Such arbitrage strategies start paying off as soon as the relative prices of the two DLC stocks converge toward theoretical parity. However, since there is no identifiable date at which DLC prices will converge, arbitrage positions sometimes have to be kept open for considerable periods of time. In the meantime, the price gap might widen. In these situations, arbitrageurs may receive margin calls, after which they would most likely be forced to liquidate part of the position at a highly unfavorable moment and suffer a loss. Arbitrage in DLCs may be profitable, but is also very risky.

A good illustration of the risk of DLC arbitrage is the position in Royal Dutch Shell—which had a DLC structure until 2005—by the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM, see also the discussion below). Lowenstein (2000) describes that LTCM established an arbitrage position in Royal Dutch Shell in the summer of 1997, when Royal Dutch traded at an 8 to 10 percent premium. In total $2.3 billion was invested, half of which long in Shell and the other half short in Royal Dutch (Lowenstein, p. 99). In the autumn of 1998 large defaults on Russian debt created significant losses for the hedge fund and LTCM had to unwind several positions. Lowenstein reports that the premium of Royal Dutch had increased to about 22 percent and LTCM had to close the position and incur a loss. According to Lowenstein (p. 234), LTCM lost $286 million in equity pairs trading and more than half of this loss is accounted for by the Royal Dutch Shell trade.

Regulatory arbitrage

For more details on this topic, see Jurisdictional arbitrage.

Regulatory arbitrage is where a regulated institution takes advantage of the difference between its real (or economic) risk and the regulatory position. For example, if a bank, operating under the Basel I accord, has to hold 8% capital against default risk, but the real risk of default is lower, it is profitable to securitize the loan, removing the low risk loan from its portfolio. On the other hand, if the real risk is higher than the regulatory risk then it is profitable to make that loan and hold on to it, provided it is priced appropriately.

This process can increase the overall riskiness of institutions under a risk insensitive regulatory regime, as described by Alan Greenspan in his October 1998 speech on The Role of Capital in Optimal Banking Supervision and Regulation.

Regulatory Arbitrage was used for the first time in 2005 when it was applied by Scott V. Simpson, a partner at law firm Skadden, Arps, to refer to a new defense tactic in hostile mergers and acquisitions where differing takeover regimes in deals involving multi-jurisdictions are exploited to the advantage of a target company under threat.

In economics, regulatory arbitrage (sometimes, tax arbitrage) may be used to refer to situations when a company can choose a nominal place of business with a regulatory, legal or tax regime with lower costs. For example, an insurance company may choose to locate in Bermuda due to preferential tax rates and policies for insurance companies. This can occur particularly where the business transaction has no obvious physical location: in the case of many financial products, it may be unclear “where” the transaction occurs.

Regulatory arbitrage can include restructuring a bank by outsourcing services such as IT. The outsourcing company takes over the installations, buying out the bank’s assets and charges a periodic service fee back to the bank. This frees up cashflow usable for new lending by the bank. The bank will have higher IT costs, but counts on the multiplier effect of money creation and the interest rate spread to make it a profitable exercise.

Example Sell the IT installations for 40 million USD. With a reserve ratio of 10%, the bank can create 400 million in additional loans (there is a time lag, and the bank has to expect to recover the loaned money back into its books). The bank can often lend (and securitize the loan) to the IT services company their acquisition cost for the IT installations. This can be at preferential rates, as the sole client using the IT installation is the bank. If the bank can generate 5% interest margin on the 400 million of new loans, the bank will increase interest revenues by 20 million. The IT services company is free to leverage their balance sheet as aggressively as they and their banker agree to. This is the reason behind the trend towards outsourcing in the financial sector. It is actually more expensive to outsource the IT operations as the outsourcing adds a layer of management and increases overhead.

Telecom arbitrage

Main article: International telecommunications routes

Telecom arbitrage companies allow phone users to make international calls for free through certain access numbers. Such services are offered in the United Kingdom; the telecommunication arbitrage companies get paid an interconnect charge by the UK mobile networks and then buy international routes at a lower cost. The calls are seen as free by the UK contract mobile phone customers since they are using up their allocated monthly minutes rather than paying for additional calls.

Such services were previously offered in the United States by companies such as FuturePhone.com.  These services would operate in rural telephone exchanges, primarily in small towns in the state of Iowa. In these areas, the local telephone carriers are allowed to charge a high “termination fee” to the caller’s carrier in order to fund the cost of providing service to the small and sparsely-populated areas that they serve. However, FuturePhone (as well as other similar services) ceased operations upon legal challenges from AT&T and other service providers.

The debacle of Long-Term Capital Management

Main article: Long-Term Capital Management

Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) lost 4.6 billion U.S. dollars in fixed income arbitrage in September 1998. LTCM had attempted to make money on the price difference between different bonds. For example, it would sell U.S. Treasury securities and buy Italian bond futures. The concept was that because Italian bond futures had a less liquid market, in the short term Italian bond futures would have a higher return than U.S. bonds, but in the long term, the prices would converge. Because the difference was small, a large amount of money had to be borrowed to make the buying and selling profitable.

The downfall in this system began on August 17, 1998, when Russia defaulted on its ruble debt and domestic dollar debt. Because the markets were already nervous due to the Asian financial crisis, investors began selling non-U.S. treasury debt and buying U.S. treasuries, which were considered a safe investment. As a result the price on US treasuries began to increase and the return began decreasing because there were many buyers, and the return on other bonds began to increase because there were many sellers. This caused the difference between the prices of U.S. treasuries and other bonds to increase, rather than to decrease as LTCM was expecting. Eventually this caused LTCM to fold, and their creditors had to arrange a bail-out. More controversially, officials of the Federal Reserve assisted in the negotiations that led to this bail-out, on the grounds that so many companies and deals were intertwined with LTCM that if LTCM actually failed, they would as well, causing a collapse in confidence in the economic system. Thus LTCM failed as a fixed income arbitrage fund, although it is unclear what sort of profit was realized by the banks that bailed LTCM out.

Etymology

“Arbitrage” is a French word and denotes a decision by an arbitrator or arbitration tribunal. (In modern French, “arbitre” usually means referee or umpire). In the sense used here it is first defined in 1704 by Mathieu de la Porte in his treatise “La science des négocians et teneurs de livres” as a consideration of different exchange rates to recognize the most profitable places of issuance and settlement for a bill of exchange (“L’arbitrage est une combinaison que l’on fait de plusieurs changes, pour connoitre [connaître, in modern spelling] quelle place est plus avantageuse pour tirer et remettre”).

Asset-liability mismatch: In finance, an asset-liability mismatch occurs when the financial terms of the assets and liabilities do not correspond. Several types of mismatches are possible.

For example, a bank that chose to borrow entirely in U.S. dollars and lend in Russian rubles would have a significant currency mismatch: if the value of the ruble were to fall dramatically, the bank would lose money. In extreme cases, such movements in the value of the assets and liabilities could lead to bankruptcy, liquidity problems and wealth transfer.

Asset-liability mismatches can occur in several different areas. A bank could have substantial long-term assets (such as fixed rate mortgages) but short-term liabilities (maturity mismatch), such as deposits, which can be measured by the duration gap. This is sometimes called a maturity mismatch. Alternatively, a bank could have all of its liabilities as floating interest rate bonds, but assets in fixed rate instruments. Mismatches are handled by Asset liability management.

Asset-liability mismatches are also important to insurance companies and various pension plans, which may have long-term liabilities (promises to pay the insured or pension plan participants) that must be backed by assets. Choosing assets that are appropriately matched to their financial obligations is therefore an important part of their long-term strategy.

Few companies or financial institutions have perfect matches between their assets and liabilities. In particular, the mismatch between the maturities of banks’ deposits and loans makes banks susceptible to bank runs. On the other hand, ‘controlled’ mismatch, such as between short-term deposits and somewhat longer-term, higher-interest loans to customers is central to many financial institutions’ business model.

Asset-liability mismatches can be controlled, mitigated or hedged.

Automated teller machine (ATM): An automated teller machine (ATM) is a computerized telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public space without the need for a human clerk or bank teller. On most modern ATMs, the customer is identified by inserting a plastic ATM card with a magnetic stripe or a plastic smartcard with a chip, that contains a unique card number and some security information, such as an expiration date or CVVC (CVV). Authentication is provided by the customer entering a personal identification number (PIN).

Using an ATM, customers can access their bank accounts in order to make cash withdrawals (or credit card cash advances) and check their account balances as well as purchasing mobile cell phone prepaid credit. ATMs are known by various other names including automated transaction machine, automated banking machine, money machine, bank machine, cash machine, hole-in-the-wall, cashpoint, Bancomat (in various countries in Europe and Russia), Multibanco (after a registered trade mark, in Portugal), and Any Time Money (in India).

History

The first mechanical cash dispenser was developed and built by Luther George Simjian and installed in 1939 in New York City by the City Bank of New York,^{[citation needed]} but removed after 6 months due to the lack of customer acceptance.

Thereafter, the history of ATMs paused for over 25 years, until De La Rue developed the first electronic ATM, which was installed first in Enfield Town in North London, United Kingdom on 27 June 1967 by Barclays Bank.  This instance of the invention is credited to John Shepherd-Barron, although various other engineers were awarded patents for related technologies at the time.  Shepherd-Barron was awarded an OBE in the 2005 New Year’s Honours List.  The first person to use the machine was the British variety artist and actor Reg Varney.  The first ATMs accepted only a single-use token or voucher, which was retained by the machine. These worked on various principles including radiation and low-coercivity magnetism that was wiped by the card reader to make fraud more difficult.  The machine dispensed pre-packaged envelopes containing ten pounds sterling.  The idea of a PIN stored on the card was developed by the British engineer James Goodfellow in 1965.

In 1968 the networked ATM was pioneered in Dallas, Texas, by Donald Wetzel who was a department head at an automated baggage-handling company called Docutel. In 1995 the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History recognized Docutel and Wetzel as the inventors of the networked ATM.

ATMs first came into wide UK use in 1973; the IBM 2984 was designed at the request of Lloyds Bank. The 2984 CIT (Cash Issuing Terminal) was the first true Cashpoint, similar in function to today’s machines; Cashpoint is still a registered trademark of Lloyds TSB in the U.K. All were online and issued a variable amount which was immediately deducted from the account. A small number of 2984s were supplied to a US bank. Notable historical models of ATMs include the IBM 3624 and 473x series, Diebold 10xx and TABS 9000 series, and NCR 5xxx series.

Location

ATMs are placed not only near or inside the premises of banks, but also in locations such as shopping centers/malls, airports, grocery stores, petrol/gas stations, restaurants, or any place large numbers of people may gather. These represent two types of ATM installations: on and off premise. On premise ATMs are typically more advanced, multi-function machines that complement an actual bank branch’s capabilities and thus more expensive. Off premise machines are deployed by financial institutions and also ISOs (or Independent Sales Organizations) where there is usually just a straight need for cash, so they typically are the cheaper mono-function devices. In Canada, when an ATM is not operated by a financial institution it is known as a “White Label ATM”.

In North America, banks often have drive-thru lanes providing access to ATMs.

Many ATMs have a sign above them indicating the name of the bank or organization owning the ATM, and possibly including the list of ATM networks to which that machine is connected. This type of sign is called a topper.

Financial networks

Most ATMs are connected to interbank networks, enabling people to withdraw and deposit money from machines not belonging to the bank where they have their account or in the country where their accounts are held (enabling cash withdrawals in local currency). Some examples of interbank networks include PULSE, PLUS, Cirrus, Interac, Interswitch, STAR, and LINK.

ATMs rely on authorization of a financial transaction by the card issuer or other authorizing institution via the communications network. This is often performed through an ISO 8583 messaging system.

Many banks charge ATM usage fees. In some cases, these fees are charged solely to users who are not customers of the bank where the ATM is installed; in other cases, they apply to all users. Where machines make a charge some people will not use them, but go to a system without fees.

In order to allow a more diverse range of devices to attach to their networks, some interbank networks have passed rules expanding the definition of an ATM to be a terminal that either has the vault within its footprint or utilizes the vault or cash drawer within the merchant establishment, which allows for the use of a scrip cash dispenser.

ATMs typically connect directly to their ATM Controller via either a dial-up modem over a telephone line or directly via a leased line. Leased lines are preferable to POTS lines because they require less time to establish a connection. Leased lines may be comparatively expensive to operate versus a POTS line, meaning less-trafficked machines will usually rely on a dial-up modem. That dilemma may be solved as high-speed Internet VPN connections become more ubiquitous. Common lower-level layer communication protocols used by ATMs to communicate back to the bank include SNA over SDLC, TC500 over Async,X.25, and TCP/IP over Ethernet.

In addition to methods employed for transaction security and secrecy, all communications traffic between the ATM and the Transaction Processor may also be encrypted via methods such as SSL.

Global use

There are no hard international or government-compiled numbers totaling the complete number of ATMs in use worldwide. Estimates developed by ATMIA place the number of ATMs in use at over 1.5 million as of August 2006.

For the purpose of analyzing ATM usage around the world, financial institutions generally divide the world into seven regions, due to the penetration rates, usage statistics, and features deployed. Four regions (USA, Canada, Europe, and Japan) have high numbers of ATMs per million people and generally slowing growth rates.  Despite the large number of ATMs, there is additional demand for machines in the Asia/Pacific area as well as in Latin America.  ATMs have yet to reach high numbers in the Near East/Africa.

The world’s most northerly installed ATM is located at Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway.

The world’s most southerly installed ATM is located at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

While India claims to have the world’s highest installed ATM at Nathu La Pass, India installed by the Union Bank of India at 4310 meters, there are higher ATM´s installed in Nagchu County, Tibet at 4500 meters by Agricultural Bank of China .

While ATMs are ubiquitous on modern cruise ships, ATMs can also be found on some US Navy ships.

In the United Kingdom, an ATM may be colloqually referred to as a “Cashpoint”, named after the Lloyds Bank ATM brand, or “hole-in-the-wall”, an expression after which the equivalent Barclays brand was later named. In Scotland the term Cashline has become a generic term for an ATM, based on the branding from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

In the Republic of Ireland, ATM’s are also commonly referred to as a “Banklink“, named after the Allied Irish Bank brand of machines.

Hardware

An ATM is typically made up of the following devices:

• CPU (to control the user interface and transaction devices)
• Magnetic and/or Chip card reader (to identify the customer)
• PIN Pad (similar in layout to a Touch tone or Calculator keypad), often manufactured as part of a secure enclosure.
• Secure cryptoprocessor, generally within a secure enclosure.
• Display (used by the customer for performing the transaction)
• Function key buttons (usually close to the display) or a Touchscreen (used to select the various aspects of the transaction)
• Record Printer (to provide the customer with a record of their transaction)
• Vault (to store the parts of the machinery requiring restricted access)
• Housing (for aesthetics and to attach signage to)

Recently, due to heavier computing demands and the falling price of computer-like architectures, ATMs have moved away from custom hardware architectures using microcontrollers and/or application-specific integrated circuits to adopting a hardware architecture that is very similar to a personal computer.  Many ATMs are now able to use operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Linux. Although it is undoubtedly cheaper to use commercial off-the-shelf hardware, it does make ATMs vulnerable to the same sort of problems exhibited by conventional computers.

Business owners often lease ATM terminals from ATM service providers.

The vault of an ATM is within the footprint of the device itself and is where items of value are kept. Scrip cash dispensers do not incorporate a vault.

Mechanisms found inside the vault may include:

• Dispensing mechanism (to provide cash or other items of value)
• Deposit mechanism, including a Cheque Processing Module and Batch Note Acceptor (to allow the customer to make deposits)
• Security sensors (Magnetic, Thermal, Seismic)
• Locks: (to ensure controlled access to the contents of the vault)
• Journaling systems; some are electronic (a sealed flash memory device based on proprietary standards) or a solid-state device (an actual printer) which accrues all records of activity, including access timestamps, number of bills dispensed, etc. – This is considered sensitive data and is secured in similar fashion to the cash as it is a similar liability.

ATM vaults are supplied by manufacturers in several grades. Factors influencing vault grade selection include cost, weight, regulatory requirements, ATM type, operator risk avoidance practices, and internal volume requirements.

Industry standard vault configurations include Underwriters Laboratories UL-291 “Business Hours” and Level 1 Safes, RAL TL-30 derivatives,^[26] and CEN EN 1143-1:2005 – CEN III/VdS and CEN IV/LGAI/VdS.

ATM manufacturers recommend that vaults be attached to the floor to prevent theft.

Software

With the migration to commodity PC hardware, standard commercial “off-the-shelf” operating systems and programming environments can be used inside of ATMs. Typical platforms used in ATM development include RMX, OS/2, and Microsoft operating systems (such as MS-DOS, PC-DOS, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Embedded). Java, Linux and Unix may also be used in these environments.

Linux is also finding some reception in the ATM marketplace. An example of this is Banrisul, the largest bank in the south of Brazil, which has replaced the MS-DOS operating systems in its ATMs with Linux. Banco do Brasil is also migrating ATMs to Linux.

Common application layer transaction protocols, such as Diebold 911 or 912, IBM PBM, and NCR NDC or NDC+ provide emulation of older generations of hardware on newer platforms with incremental extensions made over time to address new capabilities, although companies like NCR continuously improve these protocols issuing newer versions (latest NCR Aptra Advance NDC Version 3.x.y (Where x.y are subversions). Most major ATM manufacturers provide software packages that implement these protocols. Newer protocols such as IFX have yet to find wide acceptance by transaction processors.

With the move to a more standardized software base, financial institutions have been increasingly interested in the ability to pick and choose the application programs that drive their equipment. WOSA/XFS, now known as CEN XFS (or simply XFS), provides a common API for accessing and manipulating the various devices of an ATM.

J/XFS is a Java implementation of the CEN XFS API.

While the perceived benefit of XFS is similar to the Java’s “Write once, run anywhere” mantra, often different ATM hardware vendors have different interpretations of the XFS standard. The result of these differences in interpretation means that ATM applications typically use a middleware to even out the differences between various platforms.

With the onset of Windows operating systems and XFS on ATM’s, the software applications have the ability to become more intelligent. This has created a new breed of ATM applications commonly referred to as programmable applications. These types of applications allows for an entirely new host of applications in which the ATM terminal can do more than only communicate with the ATM switch. It is now empowered to connected to other content servers and video banking systems.

Notable ATM software that operates on XFS platforms include Triton PRISM, Diebold Agilis, CR2 BankWorld, KAL Kalignite, NCR Corporation Aptra Edge, Phoenix InteractiveVISTAatm, and Wincor Nixdorf Protopas.

With the move of ATMs to industry-standard computing environments, concern has risen about the integrity of the ATM’s software stack.

Security

Security, as it relates to ATMs, has several dimensions. ATMs also provide a practical demonstration of a number of security systems and concepts operating together and how various security concerns are dealt with.

Physical

Early ATM security focused on making the ATMs invulnerable to physical attack; they were effectively safes with dispenser mechanisms. A number of attacks on ATMs resulted, with thieves attempting to steal entire ATMs by ram-raiding.  Since late 1990s, criminal groups operating in Japan improved ram-raiding by stealing and using a truck loaded with a heavy construction machinery to effectively demolish or uproot an entire ATM and any housing to steal its cash.

Another attack method, plofkraak, is to seal all openings of the ATM with silicone and fill the vault with a combustible gas or to place an explosive inside, attached, or near the ATM.  This gas or explosive is ignited and the vault is opened or distorted by the force of the resulting explosion and the criminals can break in.

Modern ATM physical security, per other modern money-handling security, concentrates on denying the use of the money inside the machine to a thief, by means of techniques such as dye markers and smoke canisters.

A common method is to simply rob the staff filling the machine with money. To avoid this, the schedule for filling them is kept secret, varying and random. The money is often kept in cassettes, which will dye the money if incorrectly opened.

Transactional secrecy and integrity

The security of ATM transactions relies mostly on the integrity of the secure cryptoprocessor: the ATM often uses commodity components that are not considered to be “trusted systems“.

Encryption of personal information, required by law in many jurisdictions, is used to prevent fraud. Sensitive data in ATM transactions are usually encrypted with DES, but transaction processors now usually require the use of Triple DES. Remote Key Loading techniques may be used to ensure the secrecy of the initialization of the encryption keys in the ATM. Message Authentication Code (MAC) or Partial MAC may also be used to ensure messages have not been tampered with while in transit between the ATM and the financial network.

Customer identity integrity

There have also been a number of incidents of fraud by Man-in-the-middle attacks, where criminals have attached fake keypads or card readers to existing machines. These have then been used to record customers’ PINs and bank card information in order to gain unauthorized access to their accounts. Various ATM manufacturers have put in place countermeasures to protect the equipment they manufacture from these threats.

Alternate methods to verify cardholder identities have been tested and deployed in some countries, such as finger and palm vein patterns, iris, and facial recognition technologies. However, recently, cheaper mass production equipment has been developed and being installed in machines globally that detect the presence of foreign objects on the front of ATMs, current tests have shown 99% detection success for all types of skimming devices.

Device operation integrity

Openings on the customer-side of ATMs are often covered by mechanical shutters to prevent tampering with the mechanisms when they are not in use. Alarm sensors are placed inside the ATM and in ATM servicing areas to alert their operators when doors have been opened by unauthorized personnel. Rules are usually set by the government or ATM operating body that dictate what happens when integrity systems fail. Depending on the jurisdiction, a bank may or may not be liable when an attempt is made to dispense a customer’s money from an ATM and the money either gets outside of the ATM’s vault, or was exposed in a non-secure fashion, or they are unable to determine the state of the money after a failed transaction.  Bank customers often complain that banks have made it difficult to recover money lost in this way, but this is often complicated by the bank’s own internal policies regarding suspicious activities typical of the criminal element.

Customer security

In some countries, multiple security cameras and security guards are a common feature.  In the United States, The NY State Comptroller’s Office has criticized the NY State Department of Banking for not following through on safety inspections of ATMs in high crime areas.

Critics of ATM operators assert that the issue of customer security appears to have been abandoned by the banking industry; it has been suggested that efforts are now more concentrated on deterrent legislation than on solving the problem of forced withdrawals.

At least as far back as July 30, 1986, critics of the industry have called for the adoption of an emergency PIN system for ATMs, where the user is able to send a silent alarm in response to a threat.  Legislative efforts to require an emergency PIN system have appeared in Illinois, Kansas and Georgia, but none have succeeded as of yet. In January 2009, Senate Bill 1355 was proposed in the Illinois Senate that revisits the issue of the reverse emergency PIN system.  The bill is again resisted by the banking lobby and supported by the police.   In 1998 three towns outside of Cleveland Ohio, in response to an ATM crime wave, adopted ATM Consumer Security Legislation requiring that a 9-1-1 switch be installed at all outside ATMs within their jurisdiction. Since the passing of these laws 11 years ago, there have been no repeat crimes. In the wake of an ATM Murder in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, The City Council of Sharon Hill passed an ATM Consumer Security Bill as well, with the same result. As of July 2009, ATM Consumer Security Legislation is currently pending in New York, New Jersey, and Washington D.C.

Alternative uses

Although ATMs were originally developed as just cash dispensers, they have evolved to include many other bank-related functions. In some countries, especially those which benefit from a fully integrated cross-bank ATM network (e.g.: Multibanco in Portugal), ATMs include many functions which are not directly related to the management of one’s own bank account, such as:

• Deposit currency recognition, acceptance, and recycling
• Paying routine bills, fees, and taxes (utilities, phone bills, social security, legal fees, taxes, etc.)
• Printing bank statements
• Updating passbooks
• Loading monetary value into stored value cards
• Purchasing
  • Postage stamps.
  • Lottery tickets
  • Train tickets
  • Concert tickets
  • Movie tickets
  • Shopping mall gift certificates.
• Games and promotional features^[56]
• Donating to charities^[57]
• Cheque Processing Module
• Adding pre-paid cell phone credit.

Increasingly banks are seeking to use the ATM as a sales device to deliver pre approved loans and targeted advertising using products such as ITM (the Intelligent Teller Machine) from CR2 or Aptra Relate from NCR. ATMs can also act as an advertising channel for companies to advertise their own products or third-party products and services.

In Canada, ATMs are called guichets automatiques in French and sometimes “Bank Machines” in English. The Interac shared cash network does not allow for the selling of goods from ATMs due to specific security requirements for PIN entry when buying goods.  CIBC machines in Canada, are able to top-up the minutes on certain pay as you go phones.

Manufacturers have demonstrated and have deployed several different technologies on ATMs that have not yet reached worldwide acceptance, such as:

• Biometrics, where authorization of transactions is based on the scanning of a customer’s fingerprint, iris, face, etc. Biometrics on ATMs can be found in Asia.
• Cheque/Cash Acceptance, where the ATM accepts and recognize cheques and/or currency without using envelopes Expected to grow in importance in the US through Check 21 legislation.
• Bar code scanning
• On-demand printing of “items of value” (such as movie tickets, traveler’s cheques, etc.)
• Dispensing additional media (such as phone cards)
• Co-ordination of ATMs with mobile phones
• Customer-specific advertising
• Integration with non-banking equipment

Reliability

Before an ATM is placed in a public place, it typically has undergone extensive testing with both test money and the backend computer systems that allow it to perform transactions. Banking customers also have come to expect high reliability in their ATMs, which provides incentives to ATM providers to minimize machine and network failures. Financial consequences of incorrect machine operation also provide high degrees of incentive to minimize malfunctions.

ATMs and the supporting electronic financial networks are generally very reliable, with industry benchmarks typically producing 98.25% customer availability for ATMs and up to 99.999% availability for host systems. If ATMs do go out of service, customers could be left without the ability to make transactions until the beginning of their bank’s next time of opening hours.

This said, not all errors are to the detriment of customers; there have been cases of machines giving out money without debiting the account, or giving out higher value notes as a result of incorrect denomination of banknote being loaded in the money cassettes. Errors that can occur may be mechanical (such as card transport mechanisms; keypads; hard disk failures); software (such as operating system; device driver; application); communications; or purely down to operator error.

To aid in reliability, some ATMs print each transaction to a roll paper journal that is stored inside the ATM, which allows both the users of the ATMs and the related financial institutions to settle things based on the records in the journal in case there is a dispute. In some cases, transactions are posted to an electronic journal to remove the cost of supplying journal paper to the ATM and for more convenient searching of data.

Improper money checking can cause the possibility of a customer receiving counterfeit banknotes from an ATM. While bank personnel are generally trained better at spotting and removing counterfeit cash, the resulting ATM money supplies used by banks provide no absolute guarantee for proper banknotes, as the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany has confirmed that there are regularly incidents of false banknotes having been dispensed through bank ATMs.  Some ATMs may be stocked and wholly owned by outside companies, which can further complicate this problem. Bill validation technology can be used by ATM providers to help ensure the authenticity of the cash before it is stocked in an ATM; ATMs that have cash recycling capabilities include this capability.

Fraud

As with any device containing objects of value, ATMs and the systems they depend on to function are the targets of fraud. Fraud against ATMs and people’s attempts to use them takes several forms.

The first known instance of a fake ATM was installed at a shopping mall in Manchester, Connecticut in 1993. By modifying the inner workings of a Fujitsu model 7020 ATM, a criminal gang known as The Bucklands Boys were able to steal information from cards inserted into the machine by customers.

In some cases, bank fraud could occur at ATMs whereby the bank accidentally stocks the ATM with bills in the wrong denomination, therefore giving the customer more money than should be dispensed.^[77] The result of receiving too much money may be influenced on the card holder agreement in place between the customer and the bank.

In a variation of this, WAVY-TV reported an incident in Virginia Beach of September 2006 where a hacker who had probably obtained a factory-default admin password for a gas station’s white label ATM caused the unit to assume it was loaded with $5 USD bills instead of $20s, enabling himself—and many subsequent customers—to walk away with four times the money they said they wanted to withdraw.  This type of scam was featured on the TV series The Real Hustle.

ATM behavior can change during what is called “stand-in” time, where the bank’s cash dispensing network is unable to access databases that contain account information (possibly for database maintenance). In order to give customers access to cash, customers may be allowed to withdraw cash up to a certain amount that may be less than their usual daily withdrawal limit, but may still exceed the amount of available money in their account, which could result in fraud.

Card fraud

In an attempt to prevent criminals from shoulder surfing the customer’s PINs, some banks draw privacy areas on the floor.

For a low-tech form of fraud, the easiest is to simply steal a customer’s card. A later variant of this approach is to trap the card inside of the ATM’s card reader with a device often referred to as a Lebanese loop. When the customer gets frustrated by not getting the card back and walks away from the machine, the criminal is able to remove the card and withdraw cash from the customer’s account.

Another simple form of fraud involves attempting to get the customer’s bank to issue a new card and stealing it from their mail.

The concept and various methods of copying the contents of an ATM card’s magnetic stripe on to a duplicate card to access other people’s financial information was well known in the hacking communities by late 1990.

In 1996 Andrew Stone, a computer security consultant from Hampshire in the UK, was convicted of stealing more than £1 million (at the time equivalent to US$1.6 million) by pointing high definition video cameras at ATMs from a considerable distance, and by recording the card numbers, expiry dates, etc. from the embossed detail on the ATM cards along with video footage of the PINs being entered. After getting all the information from the videotapes, he was able to produce clone cards which not only allowed him to withdraw the full daily limit for each account, but also allowed him to sidestep withdrawal limits by using multiple copied cards. In court, it was shown that he could withdraw as much as £10,000 per hour by using this method. Stone was sentenced to five years and six months in prison.

By contrast, a newer high-tech modus operandi involves the installation of a magnetic card reader over the real ATM’s card slot and the use of a wireless surveillance camera or a modified digital camera to observe the user’s PIN. Card data is then cloned onto a second card and the criminal attempts a standard cash withdrawal. The availability of low-cost commodity wireless cameras and card readers has made it a relatively simple form of fraud, with comparatively low risk to the fraudsters.

In an attempt to stop these practices, countermeasures against card cloning have been developed by the banking industry, in particular by the use of smart cards which cannot easily be copied or spoofed by un-authenticated devices, and by attempting to make the outside of their ATMs tamper evident. Older chip-card security systems include the French Carte Bleue, Visa Cash, Mondex, Blue from American Express and EMV ’96 or EMV 3.11. The most actively developed form of smart card security in the industry today is known as EMV 2000 or EMV 4.x.

EMV is widely used in the UK (Chip and PIN) and other parts of Europe, but when it is not available in a specific area, ATMs must fallback to using the easy to copy magnetic stripe to perform transactions. This fallback behavior can be exploited.  However the fallback option has been removed by several UK banks, meaning if the chip is not read, the transaction will be declined.

In February 2009, a group of criminals used counterfeit ATM cards to steal $9 million from 130 ATMs in 49 cities around the world all within a time period of 30 minutes.

Card cloning and skimming can be detected by the implementation of magnetic card reader heads and firmware that can read a signature embedded in all magnetic stripes during the card production process. This signature known as a “MagnePrint” or “BluPrint” can be used in conjunction with common two factor authentication schemes utilized in ATM, debit/retail point-of-sale and prepaid card applications.

Related devices

A Talking ATM is a type of ATM that provides audible instructions so that persons who cannot read an ATM screen can independently use the machine. All audible information is delivered privately through a standard headphone jack on the face of the machine. Alternatively, some banks such as the Nordea and Swedbank use a built-in external speaker which may be invoked by pressing the talk button on the keypad. Information is delivered to the customer either through pre-recorded sound files or via text-to-speech speech synthesis.

A postal interactive kiosk may also share many of the same components as an ATM (including a vault), but only dispenses items relating to postage.

A scrip cash dispenser may share many of the same components as an ATM, but lacks the ability to dispense physical cash and consequently requires no vault. Instead, the customer requests a withdrawal transaction from the machine, which prints a receipt. The customer then takes this receipt to a nearby sales clerk, who then exchanges it for cash from the till.

A Teller Assist Unit may also share many of the same components as an ATM (including a vault), but they are distinct in that they are designed to be operated solely by trained personnel and not the general public, they do not integrate directly into interbank networks, and are usually controlled by a computer that is not directly integrated into the overall construction of the unit.

Bank: A bank is a financial institution licensed by a government. Its primary activities include borrowing and lending money. Many other financial activities were allowed over time. For example banks are important players in financial markets and offer financial services such as investment funds. In some countries such as Germany, banks have historically owned major stakes in industrial corporations while in other countries such as the United States banks are prohibited from owning non-financial companies. In Japan, banks are usually the nexus of a cross-share holding entity known as the zaibatsu. In France, bancassurance is prevalent, as most banks offer insurance services (and now real estate services) to their clients.

The level of government regulation of the banking industry varies widely, with countries such as Iceland, the United Kingdom and the United States having relatively light regulation of the banking sector, and countries such as China having relatively heavier regulation (including stricter regulations regarding the level of reserves).

History

Main article: History of banking

The first state deposit bank, Banco di San Giorgio (Bank of St. George), was founded in 1407 at Genoa, Italy.

Origin of the word

The name bank derives from the Italian word banco “desk/bench”, used during the Renaissance by Florentine bankers, who used to make their transactions above a desk covered by a green tablecloth.  However, there are traces of banking activity even in ancient times.

In fact, the word traces its origins back to the Ancient Roman Empire, where moneylenders would set up their stalls in the middle of enclosed courtyards called macella on a long bench called a bancu, from which the words banco and bank are derived. As a moneychanger, the merchant at the bancu did not so much invest money as merely convert the foreign currency into the only legal tender in Rome—that of the Imperial Mint.

The earliest evidence of money-changing activity is depicted on a silver drachm coin from ancient Hellenic colony Trapezus on the Black Sea, modern Trabzon, c. 350–325 BC, presented in the British Museum in London. The coin shows a banker’s table (trapeza) laden with coins, a pun on the name of the city.

In fact, even today in Modern Greek the word Trapeza (???????) means both a table and a bank.

Traditional banking activities

Banks act as payment agents by conducting chequeing or current accounts for customers, paying cheques drawn by customers on the bank, and collecting cheques deposited to customers’ current accounts. Banks also enable customer payments via other payment methods such as telegraphic transfer, EFTPOS, and ATM.

Banks borrow money by accepting funds deposited on current accounts, by accepting term deposits, and by issuing debt securities such as banknotes and bonds. Banks lend money by making advances to customers on current accounts, by making installment loans, and by investing in marketable debt securities and other forms of money lending.

Banks provide almost all payment services, and a bank account is considered indispensable by most businesses, individuals and governments. Non-banks that provide payment services such as remittance companies are not normally considered an adequate substitute for having a bank account.

Banks borrow most funds from households and non-financial businesses, and lend most funds to households and non-financial businesses, but non-bank lenders provide a significant and in many cases adequate substitute for bank loans, and money market funds, cash management trusts.

Definition

The definition of a bank varies from country to country.

Under English common law, a banker is defined as a person who carries on the business of banking, which is specified as:

• conducting current accounts for his customers
• paying cheques drawn on him, and
• collecting cheques for his customers.

In most English common law jurisdictions there is a Bills of Exchange Act that codifies the law in relation to negotiable instruments, including cheques, and this Act contains a statutory definition of the term banker: banker includes a body of persons, whether incorporated or not, who carry on the business of banking’ (Section 2, Interpretation). Although this definition seems circular, it is actually functional, because it ensures that the legal basis for bank transactions such as cheques do not depend on how the bank is organized or regulated.

The business of banking is in many English common law countries not defined by statute but by common law, the definition above. In other English common law jurisdictions there are statutory definitions of the business of banking or banking business. When looking at these definitions it is important to keep in mind that they are defining the business of banking for the purposes of the legislation, and not necessarily in general. In particular, most of the definitions are from legislation that has the purposes of entry regulating and supervising banks rather than regulating the actual business of banking. However, in many cases the statutory definition closely mirrors the common law one. Examples of statutory definitions:

• “banking business” means the business of receiving money on current or deposit account, paying and collecting cheques drawn by or paid in by customers, the making of advances to customers, and includes such other business as the Authority may prescribe for the purposes of this Act; (Banking Act (Singapore), Section 2, Interpretation).
• “banking business” means the business of either or both of the following:

1. receiving from the general public money on current, deposit, savings or other similar account repayable on demand or within less than [3 months] … or with a period of call or notice of less than that period;
2. paying or collecting cheques drawn by or paid in by customers

Since the advent of EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale), direct credit, direct debit and internet banking, the cheque has lost its primacy in most banking systems as a payment instrument. This has led legal theorists to suggest that the cheque based definition should be broadened to include financial institutions that conduct current accounts for customers and enable customers to pay and be paid by third parties, even if they do not pay and collect cheques.

Accounting for bank accounts

Bank statements are accounting records produced by banks under the various accounting standards of the world. Under GAAP and IFRS there are two kinds of accounts: debit and credit. Credit accounts are Revenue, Equity and Liabilities. Debit Accounts are Assets and Expenses. This means you credit a credit account to increase its balance, and you debit a debit account to increase its balance.

This also means you debit your savings account every time you deposit money into it (and the account is normally in deficit), while you credit your credit card account every time you spend money from it (and the account is normally in credit).

However, if you read your bank statement, it will say the opposite—that you credit your account when you deposit money, and you debit it when you withdraw funds. If you have cash in your account, you have a positive (or credit) balance; if you are overdrawn, you have a negative (or deficit) balance.

The reason for this is that the bank, and not you, has produced the bank statement. Your savings might be your assets, but the bank’s liability, so they are credit accounts (which should have a positive balance). Conversely, your loans are your liabilities but the bank’s assets, so they are debit accounts (which should have a also have a positive balance).

Where bank transactions, balances, credits and debits are discussed below, they are done so from the viewpoint of the account holder—which is traditionally what most people are used to seeing.

Wider commercial role

The commercial role of banks is not limited to banking, and includes:

• issue of banknotes (promissory notes issued by a banker and payable to bearer on demand)
• processing of payments by way of telegraphic transfer, EFTPOS, internet banking or other means
• issuing bank drafts and bank cheques
• accepting money on term deposit
• lending money by way of overdraft, installment loan or otherwise
• providing documentary and standby letters of credit (trade finance), guarantees, performance bonds, securities underwriting commitments and other forms of off-balance sheet exposures
• safekeeping of documents and other items in safe deposit boxes
• currency exchange
• acting as a ‘financial supermarket’ for the sale, distribution or brokerage, with or without advice, of insurance, unit trusts and similar financial products

Economic functions

The economic functions of banks include:

1. issue of money, in the form of banknotes and current accounts subject to cheque or payment at the customer’s order. These claims on banks can act as money because they are negotiable and/or repayable on demand, and hence valued at par. They are effectively transferable by mere delivery, in the case of banknotes, or by drawing a cheque that the payee may bank or cash.
2. netting and settlement of payments – banks act as both collection and paying agents for customers, participating in interbank clearing and settlement systems to collect, present, be presented with, and pay payment instruments. This enables banks to economise on reserves held for settlement of payments, since inward and outward payments offset each other. It also enables the offsetting of payment flows between geographical areas, reducing the cost of settlement between them.
3. credit intermediation – banks borrow and lend back-to-back on their own account as middle men
4. credit quality improvement – banks lend money to ordinary commercial and personal borrowers (ordinary credit quality), but are high quality borrowers. The improvement comes from diversification of the bank’s assets and capital which provides a buffer to absorb losses without defaulting on its obligations. However, banknotes and deposits are generally unsecured; if the bank gets into difficulty and pledges assets as security, to raise the funding it needs to continue to operate, this puts the note holders and depositors in an economically subordinated position.
5. maturity transformation – banks borrow more on demand debt and short term debt, but provide more long term loans. In other words, they borrow short and lend long. With a stronger credit quality than most other borrowers, banks can do this by aggregating issues (e.g. accepting deposits and issuing banknotes) and redemptions (e.g. withdrawals and redemptions of banknotes), maintaining reserves of cash, investing in marketable securities that can be readily converted to cash if needed, and raising replacement funding as needed from various sources (e.g. wholesale cash markets and securities markets).

Law of banking

Banking law is based on a contractual analysis of the relationship between the bank (defined above) and the customer—defined as any entity for which the bank agrees to conduct an account.

The law implies rights and obligations into this relationship as follows:

1. The bank account balance is the financial position between the bank and the customer: when the account is in credit, the bank owes the balance to the customer; when the account is overdrawn, the customer owes the balance to the bank.
2. The bank agrees to pay the customer’s cheques up to the amount standing to the credit of the customer’s account, plus any agreed overdraft limit.
3. The bank may not pay from the customer’s account without a mandate from the customer, e.g. a cheque drawn by the customer.
4. The bank agrees to promptly collect the cheques deposited to the customer’s account as the customer’s agent, and to credit the proceeds to the customer’s account.
5. The bank has a right to combine the customer’s accounts, since each account is just an aspect of the same credit relationship.
6. The bank has a lien on cheques deposited to the customer’s account, to the extent that the customer is indebted to the bank.
7. The bank must not disclose details of transactions through the customer’s account—unless the customer consents, there is a public duty to disclose, the bank’s interests require it, or the law demands it.
8. The bank must not close a customer’s account without reasonable notice, since cheques are outstanding in the ordinary course of business for several days.

These implied contractual terms may be modified by express agreement between the customer and the bank. The statutes and regulations in force within a particular jurisdiction may also modify the above terms and/or create new rights, obligations or limitations relevant to the bank-customer relationship.

Entry regulation

Main article: Banking regulation

Currently in most jurisdictions commercial banks are regulated by government entities and require a special bank license to operate.

Usually the definition of the business of banking for the purposes of regulation is extended to include acceptance of deposits, even if they are not repayable to the customer’s order—although money lending, by itself, is generally not included in the definition.

Unlike most other regulated industries, the regulator is typically also a participant in the market, i.e. a government-owned (central) bank. Central banks also typically have a monopoly on the business of issuing banknotes. However, in some countries this is not the case. In the UK, for example, the Financial Services Authority licenses banks, and some commercial banks (such as the Bank of Scotland) issue their own banknotes in addition to those issued by the Bank of England, the UK government’s central bank.

Some types of financial institution, such as building societies and credit unions, may be partly or wholly exempt from bank license requirements, and therefore regulated under separate rules.

The requirements for the issue of a bank license vary between jurisdictions but typically include:

1. Minimum capital
2. Minimum capital ratio
3. ‘Fit and Proper’ requirements for the bank’s controllers, owners, directors, and/or senior officers
4. Approval of the bank’s business plan as being sufficiently prudent and plausible.

Banking channels

Banks offer many different channels to access their banking and other services:

• A branch, banking centre or financial centre is a retail location where a bank or financial institution offers a wide array of face-to-face service to its customers.
• ATM is a computerized telecommunications device that provides a financial institution’s customers a method of financial transactions in a public space without the need for a human clerk or bank teller. Most banks now have more ATMs than branches, and ATMs are providing a wider range of services to a wider range of users. For example in Hong Kong, most ATMs enable anyone to deposit cash to any customer of the bank’s account by feeding in the notes and entering the account number to be credited. Also, most ATMs enable card holders from other banks to get their account balance and withdraw cash, even if the card is issued by a foreign bank.
• Mail is part of the postal system which itself is a system wherein written documents typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages containing other matter, are delivered to destinations around the world. This can be used to deposit cheques and to send orders to the bank to pay money to third parties. Banks also normally use mail to deliver periodic account statements to customers.
• Telephone banking is a service provided by a financial institution which allows its customers to perform transactions over the telephone. This normally includes bill payments for bills from major billers (e.g. for electricity).
• Online banking is a term used for performing transactions, payments etc. over the Internet through a bank, credit union or building society’s secure website.
• Mobile banking is a method of using one’s mobile phone to conduct simple banking transactions by remotely linking into a banking network.
• Video banking is a term used for performing banking transactions or professional banking consultations via a remote video and audio connection. Video banking can be performed via purpose built banking transaction machines (similar to an Automated teller machine), or via a videoconference enabled bank branch.

Types of banks

Banks’ activities can be divided into retail banking, dealing directly with individuals and small businesses; business banking, providing services to mid-market business; corporate banking, directed at large business entities; private banking, providing wealth management services to high net worth individuals and families; and investment banking, relating to activities on the financial markets. Most banks are profit-making, private enterprises. However, some are owned by government, or are non-profit organizations.

Central banks are normally government-owned and charged with quasi-regulatory responsibilities, such as supervising commercial banks, or controlling the cash interest rate. They generally provide liquidity to the banking system and act as the lender of last resort in event of a crisis.

Types of retail banks

• Commercial bank: the term used for a normal bank to distinguish it from an investment bank. After the Great Depression, the U.S. Congress required that banks only engage in banking activities, whereas investment banks were limited to capital market activities. Since the two no longer have to be under separate ownership, some use the term “commercial bank” to refer to a bank or a division of a bank that mostly deals with deposits and loans from corporations or large businesses.
• Community Banks: locally operated financial institutions that empower employees to make local decisions to serve their customers and the partners.
• Community development banks: regulated banks that provide financial services and credit to under-served markets or populations.
• Postal savings banks: savings banks associated with national postal systems.
• Private banks: banks that manage the assets of high net worth individuals.
• Offshore banks: banks located in jurisdictions with low taxation and regulation. Many offshore banks are essentially private banks.
• Savings bank: in Europe, savings banks take their roots in the 19th or sometimes even 18th century. Their original objective was to provide easily accessible savings products to all strata of the population. In some countries, savings banks were created on public initiative; in others, socially committed individuals created foundations to put in place the necessary infrastructure. Nowadays, European savings banks have kept their focus on retail banking: payments, savings products, credits and insurances for individuals or small and medium-sized enterprises. Apart from this retail focus, they also differ from commercial banks by their broadly decentralized distribution network, providing local and regional outreach—and by their socially responsible approach to business and society.
• Building societies and Landesbanks: institutions that conduct retail banking.
• Ethical banks: banks that prioritize the transparency of all operations and make only what they consider to be socially-responsible investments.
• Islamic banks: Banks that transact according to Islamic principles.
• Investment banks “underwrite” (guarantee the sale of) stock and bond issues, trade for their own accounts, make markets, and advise corporations on capital market activities such as mergers and acquisitions.
• Merchant banks were traditionally banks which engaged in trade finance. The modern definition, however, refers to banks which provide capital to firms in the form of shares rather than loans. Unlike venture capital firms, they tend not to invest in new companies.
• Universal banks, more commonly known as financial services companies, engage in several of these activities. These big banks are very diversified groups that, among other services, also distribute insurance— hence the term bancassurance, a portmanteau word combining “banque or bank” and “assurance”, signifying that both banking and insurance are provided by the same corporate entity.
• Islamic banks adhere to the concepts of Islamic law. This form of banking revolves around several well-established principles based on Islamic canons. All banking activities must avoid interest, a concept that is forbidden in Islam. Instead, the bank earns profit (markup) and fees on the financing facilities that it extends to customers.

Types of investment banks

Both combined

Other types of banks

Banks in the economy

Size of global banking industry

Worldwide assets of the largest 1,000 banks grew 16.3% in 2006/2007 to reach a record $74.2 trillion. This follows a 5.4% increase in the previous year. EU banks held the largest share, 53%, up from 43% a decade earlier. The growth in Europe’s share was mostly at the expense of Japanese banks, whose share more than halved during this period from 21% to 10%. The share of US banks remained relatively stable at around 14%. Most of the remainder was from other Asian and European countries.

The United States has by far the most banks in the world, both in terms of institutions (7,540 at the end of 2005) and branches (75,000). This is an indicator of the geography and regulatory structure of the USA, resulting in a large number of small to medium-sized institutions in its banking system. Japan had 129 banks and 12,000 branches. In 2004, Germany, France, and Italy each had more than 30,000 branches—more than double the 15,000 branches in the UK.

Bank crisis

Banks are susceptible to many forms of risk which have triggered occasional systemic crises. These include liquidity risk (where many depositors may request withdrawals beyond available funds), credit risk(the chance that those who owe money to the bank will not repay it), and interest rate risk (the possibility that the bank will become unprofitable, if rising interest rates force it to pay relatively more on its deposits than it receives on its loans).

Banking crises have developed many times throughout history, when one or more risks have materialized for a banking sector as a whole. Prominent examples include the bank run that occurred during the Great Depression, the U.S. Savings and Loan crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Japanese banking crisis during the 1990s, and the subprime mortgage crisis in the 2000s. Usually, the governments bail out the bank through rescue plan or individual public intervention.

Challenges within the banking industry

The banking industry is a highly regulated industry with detailed and focused regulators. All banks with FDIC-insured deposits have the FDIC as a regulator; however, for examinations, the Federal Reserve is the primary federal regulator for Fed-member state banks; the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) is the primary federal regulator for national banks; and the Office of Thrift Supervision, or OTS, is the primary federal regulator for thrifts. State non-member banks are examined by the state agencies as well as the FDIC. National banks have one primary regulator—the OCC.

Each regulatory agency has their own set of rules and regulations to which banks and thrifts must adhere.

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) was established in 1979 as a formal interagency body empowered to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms for the federal examination of financial institutions. Although the FFIEC has resulted in a greater degree of regulatory consistency between the agencies, the rules and regulations are constantly changing.

In addition to changing regulations, changes in the industry have led to consolidations within the Federal Reserve, FDIC, OTS and OCC. Offices have been closed, supervisory regions have been merged, staff levels have been reduced and budgets have been cut. The remaining regulators face an increased burden with increased workload and more banks per regulator. While banks struggle to keep up with the changes in the regulatory environment, regulators struggle to manage their workload and effectively regulate their banks. The impact of these changes is that banks are receiving less hands-on assessment by the regulators, less time spent with each institution, and the potential for more problems slipping through the cracks, potentially resulting in an overall increase in bank failures across the United States.

The changing economic environment has a significant impact on banks and thrifts as they struggle to effectively manage their interest rate spread in the face of low rates on loans, rate competition for deposits and the general market changes, industry trends and economic fluctuations. It has been a challenge for banks to effectively set their growth strategies with the recent economic market. A rising interest rate environment may seem to help financial institutions, but the effect of the changes on consumers and businesses is not predictable and the challenge remains for banks to grow and effectively manage the spread to generate a return to their shareholders.

The management of the banks’ asset portfolios also remains a challenge in today’s economic environment. Loans are a bank’s primary asset category and when loan quality becomes suspect, the foundation of a bank is shaken to the core. While always an issue for banks, declining asset quality has become a big problem for financial institutions. There are several reasons for this, one of which is the lax attitude some banks have adopted because of the years of “good times.” The potential for this is exacerbated by the reduction in the regulatory oversight of banks and in some cases depth of management. Problems are more likely to go undetected, resulting in a significant impact on the bank when they are recognized. In addition, banks, like any business, struggle to cut costs and have consequently eliminated certain expenses, such as adequate employee training programs.

Banks also face a host of other challenges such as aging ownership groups. Across the country, many banks’ management teams and board of directors are aging. Banks also face ongoing pressure by shareholders, both public and private, to achieve earnings and growth projections. Regulators place added pressure on banks to manage the various categories of risk. Banking is also an extremely competitive industry. Competing in the financial services industry has become tougher with the entrance of such players as insurance agencies, credit unions, cheque cashing services, credit card companies, etc.

As a reaction, banks have developed their activities in financial instruments, through financial market operations such as brokerage and trading and become big players in such activities.

Brokered deposits

One source of deposits for banks is brokers who deposit large sums of money on the behalf of investors. This money will generally go to the banks which offer the most favorable terms, often better than those offered local depositors. It is possible for a bank to be engaged in business with no local deposits at all, all funds being brokered deposits. Accepting a significant quantity of such deposits, or “hot money” as it is sometimes called, puts a bank in a difficult and sometimes risky position, as the funds must be lend or invested in a way that yields a return sufficient to pay the high interest being paid on the brokered deposits. This may result in risky decisions and even in eventual failure of the bank. Banks which failed during 2008 and 2009 in the United States during the global financial crisis had, on average, four times more brokered deposits as a percent of their deposits than the average bank. Such deposits, combined with risky real estate investments, factored into the Savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Regulation of brokered deposits is opposed by banks on the grounds that the practice can a source of external funding to growing communities with insufficient local deposits.

Profitability

A bank generates a profit from the differential between the level of interest it pays for deposits and other sources of funds, and the level of interest it charges in its lending activities. This difference is referred to as the spread between the cost of funds and the loan interest rate. Historically, profitability from lending activities has been cyclical and dependent on the needs and strengths of loan customers. In recent history, investors have demanded a more stable revenue stream and banks have therefore placed more emphasis on transaction fees, primarily loan fees but also including service charges on an array of deposit activities and ancillary services (international banking, foreign exchange, insurance, investments, wire transfers, etc.). Lending activities, however, still provide the bulk of a commercial bank’s income.

In the past 20 years American banks have taken many measures to ensure that they remain profitable while responding to increasingly changing market conditions. First, this includes the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which allows banks again to merge with investment and insurance houses. Merging banking, investment, and insurance functions allows traditional banks to respond to increasing consumer demands for “one-stop shopping” by enabling cross-selling of products (which, the banks hope, will also increase profitability). Second, they have expanded the use of risk-based pricing from business lending to consumer lending, which means charging higher interest rates to those customers that are considered to be a higher credit risk and thus increased chance of default on loans. This helps to offset the losses from bad loans, lowers the price of loans to those who have better credit histories, and offers credit products to high risk customers who would otherwise been denied credit. Third, they have sought to increase the methods of payment processing available to the general public and business clients. These products include debit cards, prepaid cards, smart cards, and credit cards. They make it easier for consumers to conveniently make transactions and smooth their consumption over time (in some countries with underdeveloped financial systems, it is still common to deal strictly in cash, including carrying suitcases filled with cash to purchase a home). However, with convenience of easy credit, there is also increased risk that consumers will mismanage their financial resources and accumulate excessive debt. Banks make money from card products through interest payments and fees charged to consumers and transaction fees to companies that accept the cards. Helps in making profit and economic development as a whole.

Bank run: A bank run (also known as a run on the bank) occurs when a large number of bank customers withdraw their deposits because they believe the bank is, or might become, insolvent. As a bank run progresses, it generates its own momentum, in a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy (or positive feedback): as more people withdraw their deposits, the likelihood of default increases, and this encourages further withdrawals. This can destabilize the bank to the point where it faces bankruptcy.

A banking panic or bank panic is a financial crisis that occurs when many banks suffer runs at the same time. A systemic banking crisis is one where all or almost all of the banking capital in a country is wiped out.  The resulting chain of bankruptcies can cause a long economic recession.  Much of the Great Depression‘s economic damage was caused directly by bank runs.  The cost of cleaning up a systemic banking crisis can be huge, with fiscal costs averaging 13% of GDP and economic output losses averaging 20% of GDP for important crises from 1970 to 2007.

Several techniques can help to prevent bank runs. They include temporary suspension of withdrawals, the organization of central banks that act as a lender of last resort, the protection of deposit insurance systems such as the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and governmental bank regulation.  These techniques do not always work: for example, even with deposit insurance, depositors may still be motivated by beliefs they may lack immediate access to deposits during a bank reorganization.

Theory

Main article: Diamond-Dybvig model

Under fractional-reserve banking, the type of banking currently used in developed countries, banks retain only a fraction of their demand deposits as cash. The remainder is invested in securities and loans, whose terms are typically longer than the demand deposits, resulting in an asset liability mismatch. No bank has enough reserves on hand to cope with more than a fraction of deposits being taken out at once.

Diamond and Dybvig developed an influential model to explain why bank runs occur and why banks issue deposits that are more liquid than their assets. According to the model, the bank acts as an intermediary between borrowers who prefer long-maturity loans and depositors who prefer liquid accounts.

In the model, business investment requires expenditures in the present to obtain returns that take time in coming, for example, spending on machines and buildings now for production in future years. A business or entrepreneur that needs to borrow to finance investment will want to give their investments a long time to generate returns before full repayment, and will prefer long maturity loans, which offer little liquidity to the lender. The households and firms who have the money to lend to these businesses may have sudden, unpredictable needs for cash, so they require fast access to their money in the form of liquid demand deposit accounts, that is, accounts with shortest possible maturity. Since borrowers need money and depositors fear to make these loans individually, banks provide a valuable service by aggregating funds from many individual deposits, portioning them into loans for borrowers, and spreading the risks both of default and sudden demands for cash.

If only a few depositors withdraw at any given time, this arrangement works well. Depositors’ unpredictable needs for cash are unlikely to occur at the same time; that is, by the law of large numbers, banks can expect only a small percentage of accounts withdrawn on any one day because individual expenditure needs are largely uncorrelated. A bank can make loans over a long horizon, while keeping only relatively small amounts of cash on hand to pay any depositors who may demand withdrawals.

However, if many depositors withdraw all at once, the bank itself (as opposed to individual investors) may run short of liquidity, and depositors will rush to withdraw their money, forcing the bank to liquidate many of its assets at a loss, and eventually to fail. If such a bank calls in its loans early, this may force businesses to disrupt their production, or individuals to sell their homes, causing further losses to the larger economy.

A bank run can occur even when started by a false story. Even depositors who know the story is false will have an incentive to withdraw, if they suspect other depositors will believe the story. The story becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Indeed, Robert K. Merton, who coined the term self-fulfilling prophecy, mentioned bank runs as a prime example of the concept in his book Social Theory and Social Structure.

The Diamond-Dybvig model provides an example of an economic game with more than one Nash equilibrium, where it is logical for individual depositors to engage in a bank run once they suspect one might start, even though that run will cause the bank to collapse.

Systemic banking crises

A bank run is the sudden withdrawal of deposits of just one bank. A banking panic or bank panic is a financial crisis that occurs when many banks suffer runs at the same time, as a cascading failure. In asystemic banking crisis, all or almost all of the banking capital in a country is wiped out; this can result when regulators ignore systemic risks and spillover effects.

Systemic banking crises are associated with substantial fiscal costs and large output losses. Frequently, emergency liquidity support and blanket guarantees have been used to contain these crises, not always successfully. Although fiscal tightening may help contain market pressures if a crisis is triggered by unsustainable fiscal policies, expansionary fiscal policies are typically used. In crises of liquidity and solvency, central banks can provide liquidity to support illiquid banks. Depositor protection can help restore confidence, although it tends to be costly and does not necessarily speed up economic recovery. Intervention is often delayed in the hope that recovery will occur, and this delay increases the stress on the economy.

Some measures are more effective than others in containing economic fallout and restoring the banking system after a systemic crisis.  These include establishing the scale of the problem, targeted debt relief programs to distressed borrowers, corporate restructuring programs, recognizing bank losses, and adequately capitalizing banks. Speed of intervention appears to be crucial; intervention is often delayed in the hope that insolvent banks will recover if given liquidity support and relaxation of regulations, and in the end this delay increases stress on the economy. Programs that are targeted, that specify clear quantifiable rules that limit access to preferred assistance, and that contain meaningful standards for capital regulation, appear to be more successful. Government-owned asset management companies are largely ineffective due to political constraints.

A silent run occurs when the implicit fiscal deficit from a government’s unbooked loss exposure to zombie banks is large enough to deter depositors of those banks. As more depositors and investors begin to doubt whether a government can support a country’s banking system, the silent run on the system can gather steam, causing the zombie banks’ funding costs to increase. If a zombie bank sells some assets at market value, its remaining assets contain a larger fraction of unbooked losses; if it rolls over its liabilities at increased interest rates, it squeezes its profits along with the profits of healthier competitors. The longer the silent run goes on, the more benefits are transferred from healthy banks and taxpayers to the zombie banks.

The cost of cleaning up after a crisis can be huge. In systemically important banking crises in the world from 1970 to 2007, the average net recapitalization cost to the government was 6% of GDP, fiscal costs associated with crisis management averaged 13% of GDP (16% of GDP if expense recoveries are ignored), and economic output losses averaged about 20% of GDP during the first four years of the crisis.

Prevention

Several techniques can be used to help prevent bank runs.

Individual banks

Some prevention techniques apply to individual banks, independently of the rest of the economy.

• A bank can take deposits from depositors who do not observe common information that might spark a run. For example, in the days before deposit insurance, it made sense for a bank to have a large lobby and fast service, to prevent a line of depositors from extending out into the street, causing passers-by to infer that a bank run is occurring.
• A bank can temporarily suspend withdrawals to stop a run; this is called suspension of convertibility. In many cases the threat of suspension prevents the run, which means the threat need not be carried out.
• Bank regulation or other constraints can impose a reserve ratio requirement, which limits the proportion of deposits which a bank can lend out, making it less likely for a bank run to start, as more reserves will be available to satisfy the demands of depositors.  This practice sets a limit on the fraction in fractional-reserve banking.
• Full-reserve banking is the hypothetical case where the reserve ratio is set to 100%. Under this approach, the risk of bank runs would be eliminated, and banks would match maturities of deposits and loans to avoid vulnerability to runs.

Collective prevention

Some prevention techniques apply across the whole economy, though they may still allow individual institutions to fail. These techniques create moral hazard, since they reduce incentives for banks to avoid making risky loans; the goal is for the benefits of collective prevention to outweigh the costs of excessive risk-taking.

• Central banks act as a lender of last resort. To prevent a bank run, the central bank guarantees that it will make short-term loans to banks, to ensure that, if they remain economically viable, they will always have enough liquidity to honor their deposits.
• Deposit insurance systems insure each depositor up to a certain amount, so that depositors’ savings are protected even if the bank fails. This removes the incentive to withdraw one’s deposits simply because others are withdrawing theirs.  However, depositors may still be motivated by fears they may lack immediate access to deposits during a bank reorganization.

History

Further information: List of bank runs and List of banking crises

Bank runs first appeared as part of cycles of credit expansion and its subsequent contraction. In the 16th century onwards, English goldsmiths issuing promissory notes suffered severe failures due to bad harvests plummeting parts of the country into famine and unrest. Other examples are the Dutch Tulip manias (1634–1637), the British South Sea Bubble (1717–1719), the French Mississippi Company (1717–1720), the post-Napoleonic depression (1815–1830) and the Great Depression (1929–1939).

Bank runs have also been used to blackmail individuals or governments; for example in 1830 when the British Government under the Duke of Wellington overturned a majority government under the orders of the king, George IV, to prevent reform (the later 1832 Reform Act), he angered reformers and so a run on the banks was threatened under the rallying cry “To stop the Duke go for gold!“.

Many of the recessions in the United States were caused by banking panics. The Great Depression contained several banking crises consisting of runs on multiple banks from 1929 to 1933; some of these were specific to regions of the U.S.^[3] Banking panics began in October 1930, one year after the stock market crash, triggered by the collapse of correspondent networks; the bank runs became worse after financial conglomerates in New York and Los Angeles failed in prominently-covered scandals. Much of the Depression’s economic damage was caused directly by bank runs, and institutions put into place after the Depression have prevented runs on U.S. commercial banks since the 1930s, even under conditions such as the U.S. savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.  The Depression’s bank runs left a lasting mark on the American psyche, exhibited in sometimes disturbing images such as the bleak scenes where the fictional hero George Bailey contemplates suicide in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life.

The financial crisis of 2007–2009 was centered around market-liquidity failures that were comparable to a bank run. The crisis contained a wave of bank nationalizations, including those associated with Northern Rock of the UK and IndyMac of the U.S. This crisis was caused by low real interest rates stimulating an asset price bubble fueled by new financial products that were not stress tested and that failed in the downturn.

Banknote: A banknote (often known as a bill, paper money or simply a note) is a kind of negotiable instrument, a promissory note made by a bank payable to the bearer on demand, used as money, and in many jurisdictions is legal tender. Along with coins, banknotes make up the cash or bearer forms of all modern money. With the exception of non-circulating high-value or precious metal commemorative issues, coins are used for lower valued monetary units, while banknotes are used for higher values. However some coins may have a significant value depending on the condition and worth.

Advantages

Originally, precious and semi-precious metals were made into coins and were used to negotiate and settle trades. Banknotes offer an alternative bearer form of money, but the advantages and disadvantages between the two forms of bearer money are complex and so in different circumstances the overall advantage can lie with either form.

The costs of using bearer money include:

1. Manufacturing or issue costs. Coins are produced by industrial manufacturing methods that process the precious or semi-precious metals, and require additions of alloy for hardness and wear resistance. By contrast bank notes are printed paper (or polymer), and typically have a lower cost of issue, especially in larger denominations, compared to coin of the same value.
2. Wear costs. Coins wear and lose mass over their economic life, and eventually are scrapped. Banknotes do not lose economic value by wear, since, even if they are in poor condition, they are still a legally valid claim on the issuing bank. However, banks of issue do have to pay the cost of replacing banknotes in poor condition and paper notes wear out much faster than coins.
3. Opportunity cost of capital. Coins have economic value and are a form of non-financial capital, however they do not pay interest. Banknotes have economic value but are a form of financial capital, a loan to the issuing bank. The issuing bank invests its assets primarily in interest bearing loans and securities, but also needs to hold metallic reserves. Thus banknotes indirectly earn interest through the investments made by the issuing bank, but coins do not pay interest to anyone. This foregone interest is the most important economic advantage of banknotes over coins.
4. Cost of transport. Coins can be expensive to transport for high value transactions, but banknotes can be issued in large denominations that are lighter than the equivalent value in coins.
5. Cost of acceptance. Coins can be checked for authenticity by weighing and other forms of examination and testing. These costs can be significant, but good quality coin design and manufacturing can help reduce these costs. Banknotes also have an acceptance cost, the costs of checking the banknote’s security features and confirming acceptability of the issuing bank.
6. Security. Counterfeiting paper notes is easier than forging coins, especially true given the proliferation of color photocopiers and computer image scanners. Numerous banks and nations have incorporated many types of countermeasures in order to keep the money secure.

The different advantages and disadvantages between coins and banknotes imply that there may be an ongoing role for both forms of bearer money, each being used where its advantages outweigh its disadvantages.

Convertibility

The ability to exchange a note for some other kind of value is called “convertibility”. For example a US silver certificate was “payable in silver on demand” from the treasury until 1965. If a note is payable on demand for a fixed unit, it is said to be fully convertible to that unit. Limited convertibility occurs when there are restrictions in the time, place, manner or amount of exchange.

A common misconception is that a bank note that is physically inconvertible is necessarily unbacked. Most of the confusion centers around the failure to distinguish between two types of convertibility:

1. Physical convertibility, where a unit of currency can be exchanged at the issuing bank for a given physical amount of something, and
2. Financial convertibility, where a unit of currency can be exchanged at the issuing bank for a unit’s worth of the bank’s assets.

The importance of financial convertibility can be seen by imagining that people in a community one day find themselves with more paper currency than they wish to hold — for example, when the main shopping season has ended. If the paper currency is physically convertible (for one ounce of silver, let us suppose), people will return the unwanted paper currency to the bank in exchange for silver, but the bank could head off this demand for silver by selling some of its own bonds to the public in exchange for its own paper currency. For example, if the community has 100 units of unwanted paper money, and if people intend to redeem the unwanted 100 units for silver at the bank, the bank could simply sell 100 units worth of bonds or other assets in exchange for 100 units of its own paper currency. This will soak up the unwanted paper and head off people’s desire to redeem the 100 units for silver.

Thus, by conducting this type of open market operation — selling bonds when there is excess currency and buying bonds when there is too little — the bank can maintain the value of the paper currency at one ounce of silver without ever redeeming any paper currency for silver. In fact, this is essentially what all modern central banks do, and the fact that their currencies might be physically inconvertible is made irrelevant by the maintenance of financial convertibility. Note that financial convertibility cannot be maintained unless the bank has sufficient assets to back the currency it has issued. Thus, it is an illusion that any physically inconvertible currency is necessarily also unbacked.

The argument against fiat paper currency is a practical one, with the best example being the US dollar, which has lost 95% of its value since 1913. This should be compared with the period of the Gold Standard, which began in the UK in 1717 and lasted until 1931, when there was essentially no inflation over the period. The entitlement to redeem banknotes in gold (which the bank cannot print) means that if a bank prints more paper money than it has gold in its vaults it runs the risk of a run on the bank, when the only mechanism available to stop the run is to raise interest rates without limit until the note holders stop redeeming their paper.

History

Paper money originated in two forms: drafts, which are receipts for value held on account, and “bills”, which were issued with a promise to convert at a later date.

Money is based on the coming to pre-eminence of some commodity as payment. The oldest monetary basis was for agricultural capital: cattle and grain. In Ancient Mesopotamia, drafts were issued against stored grain as a unit of account. A “drachma” was a weight of grain. Japan‘s feudal system was based on rice per year – koku.

At the same time, legal codes enforced the payment for injury in a standardized form, usually in precious metals. The development of money then comes from the role of agricultural capital and precious metals having a privileged place in the economy.

Such drafts were used for giro systems of banking as early as Ptolemaic Egypt in the first century BC.

The perception of banknotes as money has evolved over time. Originally, money was based on precious metals. Banknotes were seen as essentially an I.O.U. or promissory note: a promise to pay someone in precious metal on presentation (see representative money). With the gradual removal of precious metals from the monetary system, banknotes evolved to represent credit money, or (if backed by the credit of a government) also fiat money.

Notes or bills were often referred to in 18th century novels and were often a key part of the plot such as a “note drawn by Lord X for £100 pounds which becomes due in 3 months time”

First banknotes in the world

The use of paper money as a circulating medium is intimately related to shortages of metal for coins. In ancient China coins were circular with a rectangular hole in the middle. Several coins could be strung together on a rope. Merchants in China, if they became rich enough, found that their strings of coins were too heavy to carry around easily. To solve this problem, coins were often left with a trustworthy person, and the merchant was given a slip of paper recording how much money he had with that person. If he showed the paper to that person he could regain his money. Eventually, the paper money called “jiaozi” originated from these promissory notes.

In the 600s there were local issues of paper currency in China and by 960 the Song Dynasty, short of copper for striking coins, issued the first generally circulating notes. A note is a promise to redeem later for some other object of value, usually specie. The issue of credit notes is often for a limited duration, and at some discount to the promised amount later. The jiaozi nevertheless did not replace coins during the Song Dynasty; paper money was used alongside the coins.

The successive Yuan Dynasty was the first dynasty in China to use paper currency as the predominant circulating medium. The founder of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan, issued paper money known as Chao in his reign. The original notes during the Yuan Dynasty were restricted in area and duration as in the Song Dynasty, but in the later course of the dynasty, facing massive shortages of specie to fund their ruling in China, began printing paper money without restrictions on duration. By 1455, in an effort to rein in economic expansion and end hyperinflation, the new Ming Dynasty ended paper money, and closed much of Chinese trade.

In the Indian sub-continent a similar system evolved called the hundi system. The history of these instruments has not been widely studied but it is quite likely that these were in common use hundreds of years ago, being designed to assist in Indian trade, which was extensively practiced across the world in the past. A Hundi is basically an unconditional order in writing made by a person directing another to pay a certain sum of money to a person named in the order. Hundis, similar to paper notes, were issued by indigenous bankers and used in trade and credit transactions and to transfer funds from one place to another, a kind of traveler’s cheque. They were also used as credit instruments for borrowing and as bills of exchange for trade transactions.

Banknotes in Europe

In Europe the first paper money consisted of paper ‘coins’ issued in Protestant Leyden (today, Leiden) in the Netherlands during the Spanish siege of 1574.^{[citation needed]} Over 5000 of the estimated 14,000 residents of Leyden died, mostly due to starvation.^{[citation needed]} Even leather (often used to create emergency currency) was boiled and used to feed the people. So to create currency, the residents took covers and paper from hymnals and church missals and created paper planchets, which were struck using the same dies that were previously used to mint coins.

The first proper European banknotes were issued by Stockholms Banco, a predecessor of the Bank of Sweden, in 1660, although the bank ran out of coins to redeem its notes in 1664 and ceased operating in that year.

Until Louis XIV, banknotes were issued by small creditors, had limited circulation, and were not backed by the authority of the state. Economist John Law helped establish banknotes as formal currency, backed by capital consisting of French government bills and government accepted notes.

Banknotes in the United States

In the early 1690s, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first of the Thirteen Colonies to issue permanently circulating banknotes. The use of fixed denominations and printed banknotes came into use in the 18th century.

In the early 1700s each of the thirteen colonies issued their own banknotes, called colonial scrip. Later, the Continental Congress issued continental currency to support the Revolutionary War. The federal government of the United States did not print banknotes until 1862. However, almost immediately after adoption of the United States Constitution in 1789, the United States Congress chartered the First Bank of the United States and authorized it to issue banknotes. The bank served as quasi-central bank of the United States. The bank closed in 1811 when Congress failed to renew its charter. In 1816, Congress chartered the Second Bank of the United States. When its charter expired in 1836, the bank continued to operate under a charter granted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until 1841.

In the United States, public acceptance of banknotes in replacement of precious metals was hastened in part by Executive Order 6102 in 1933. This order carried the threat of a maximum $10,000 fine and a maximum of ten years in prison for anyone who kept more than $100 of gold in preference to banknotes.

Issue of banknotes

Generally, a central bank or treasury is solely responsible within a state or currency union for the issue of banknotes. However, this is not always the case, and historically the paper currency of countries was often handled entirely by private banks. Thus, many different banks or institutions may have issued banknotes in a given country. In the United States, commercial banks were authorized to issue banknotes from 1863 to 1935. In the last of these series, the issuing bank would stamp its name and promise to pay, along with the signatures of its president and cashier on a preprinted note. By this time, the notes were standardized in appearance and not too different from the Federal Reserve Notes that circulated for most of the 20th century.

In a small number of countries, private banknote issue continues to this day. For example, by virtue of the complex constitutional setup in the United Kingdom, certain commercial banks in two of the union’s four constituent countries (Scotland and Northern Ireland) continue to print their own banknotes for domestic circulation, even though they are not fiat money or declared in law as legal tender anywhere. The UK’s central bank, the Bank of England, prints notes which are legal tender in England and Wales; these notes are also usable as money (but not legal tender) in the rest of the UK (see Banknotes of the pound sterling).

In Hong Kong, three commercial banks are licensed to issue Hong Kong dollar notes.  As well as commercial issuers, other organizations may have note-issuing powers; for example, until 2002 the Singapore dollar was issued by the Board of Commissioners of Currency Singapore, a government agency which was later taken over by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Materials used for banknotes

Paper banknotes

Most banknotes are made of dense 80 to 90 grams per square meter starch paper (see also paper), sometimes mixed with linen, abaca, or other textile fibres. Generally, the paper used is different from ordinary paper: it is much more resilient, resists wear and tear, and also does not contain the usual agents that make ordinary paper glow slightly under ultraviolet light.

Early Chinese banknotes were printed on paper made of mulberry bark and this fibre is used in Japanese banknote paper today.

Unlike most printing and writing paper, banknote paper is infused with polyvinyl alcohol or gelatin to give it extra strength.

Most banknotes are made using the mould made process in which a watermark and thread is incorporated during the paper forming process.

The thread is a simple looking security component found in most banknotes. It is however often rather complex in construction comprising fluorescent, magnetic, metallic and micro print elements. By combining it with watermarking technology the thread can be made to surface periodically on one side only. This is known as windowed thread and further increases the counterfeit resistance of the banknote paper. This process was invented by Portals, part of the De La Rue group in the UK.

Other related methods include watermarking to reduce the number of corner folds by strengthening this part of the note, coatings to reduce the accumulation of dirt on the note, and plastic windows in the paper that make it very hard to copy.

Durable banknote papers

Banknote paper with enhanced durability is a recent development, designed to meet the growing need for popular low-denomination banknotes to withstand extreme wear.

Improved protection against dirt: Manufacturers of banknote paper were quick to recognize the problems associated with dirt and developed a special paper with a thin layer of varnish on the surface to repel soiling. This layer is applied directly to the substrate. The thickness and structure of the paper remain unchanged, thereby preserving the natural feel. The so-called Durable Banknote Papers, which are available in the global banknote market under brand names, such as LongLife, Platinum, Marathon Coated, Diamone, and Flesure, protect banknotes from soiling and environmental influences, making it possible for them to remain in circulation for longer.

Increased mechanical stability: With new products, such as Synthec and Diamone Composite, banknote manufacturers have gone a step further and responded to the growing demand for higher mechanical stability of the paper—because the longer a banknote stays in circulation, the limper it becomes and the more easily it tears. Synthec substrate, for example, consists of 80 percent cotton fiber and 20 percent synthetic fiber, with the latter being longer and more flexible than the former. The synthetic fibers constitute a dense network within the cotton fiber structure, supporting the banknote like a kind of corset and increasing its mechanical stability. This practically doubles the useful life of the product. Synthec is much less sensitive to climate fluctuations than standard banknote paper. The synthetic fibers are incorporated in the banknote substrate at the sheet formation stage. This has the advantage that all established security features—such as three dimensional watermarks, fluorescent fibers, security threads, or the innovative new varifeye see-through window—can be integrated into the new Synthec substrate, just as they would be with the standard cotton substrate. Optically variable effect inks and foil elements, such as holograms, can be applied to this substrate in the same way as with traditional banknote paper. Public confidence in the established security features, built up over decades, remains intact. To ensure that the banknotes are also protected against dirt, they are given a standard coating of varnish. By the end of 2007, Synthec banknotes will be circulating in three countries, including an African country with different climate zones that has chosen Synthec as a substrate for its lowest-denomination note. In the south of the country conditions are tropical, with a rainy season that lasts for eight months, while the north is very arid and extremely hot, with temperatures reaching 41 degrees Celsius. Today, most bank notes are made from cotton to prevent easy rips.

Counterfeiting and security measures on paper banknotes

The ease with which paper money can be created, by both legitimate authorities and counterfeiters, has led both to a temptation in times of crisis such as war or revolution to produce paper money which was not supported by precious metal or other goods, thus leading to hyperinflation and a loss of faith in the value of paper money, e.g. the Continental Currency produced by the Continental Congress during the American Revolution, the Assignats produced during the French Revolution, the paper currency produced by the Confederate States of America and the Individual States of the Confederate States of America, the financing of World War I by the Central Powers (by 1922 1 gold Austro-Hungarian krone of 1914 was worth 14,400 paper Kronen), the devaluation of the Yugoslav Dinar in the 1990s, etc. Banknotes may also beoverprinted to reflect political changes that occur faster than new currency can be printed.

In 1988, Austria produced the 5000 Schilling banknote (Mozart), which is the first foil application (Kinegram) to a paper banknote in the history of banknote printing. The application of optical features is now in common use throughout the world.

Many countries’ banknotes now have embedded holograms.

Polymer banknotes

Main article: Polymer banknote

In 1983, Costa Rica and Haiti issued the first Tyvek and the Isle of Man issued the first Bradvek polymer (or plastic) banknotes; these were printed by the American Banknote Company and developed by DuPont. In 1988, after significant research and development by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Reserve Bank of Australia, Australia produced the first polymer banknote made from biaxially-oriented polypropylene (plastic), and in 1996 became the first country to have a full set of circulating polymer banknotes of all denominations. Since then, other countries to adopt circulating polymer banknotes include Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei, Chile, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua and New Guinea, Romania, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka,Thailand, Viet Nam, Western Samoa and Zambia, with other countries issuing commemorative polymer notes, including China, Kuwait, the Northern Bank of Northern Ireland, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Other countries indicating plans to issue polymer banknotes include Nigeria. In 2005, Bulgaria issued the world’s first hybrid paper-polymer banknote.

Polymer banknotes were developed to improve durability and prevent counterfeiting through incorporated security features, such as optically variable devices that are extremely difficult to reproduce.

Apart from Australia, other countries such as Vietnam, Brunei, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Romania have all their circulating banknotes on polymer.

Other materials

Over the years, a number of materials other than paper have been used to print banknotes. This includes various textiles, including silk, and materials such as leather.

Silk and other fibers have been commonly used in the manufacture of various banknote papers, intended to provide both additional durability and security. Crane and Company patented banknote paper with embedded silk threads in 1844 and has supplied paper to the United States Treasury since 1879. Banknotes printed on pure silk “paper” include “emergency money” (Notgeld) issues from a number of German towns in 1923 during a period of fiscal crisis and hyperinflation. Most notoriously, Bielefeld produced a number of silk, leather, velvet, linen and wood issues, and although these issues were produced primarily for collectors, rather than for circulation, they are in demand by collectors. Banknotes printed on cloth include a number of Communist Revolutionary issues in China from areas such as Xinjiang, or Sinkiang, in the United Islamic Republic of East Turkestan in 1933. Emergency money was also printed in 1902 on khaki shirt fabric during the Boer War.

Leather banknotes (or coins) were issued in a number of sieges, as well as in other times of emergency. During the Russian administration of Alaska, banknotes were printed on sealskin. A number of 19th century issues are known in Germanic and Baltic states, including the towns of Dorpat, Pernau, Reval, Werro and Woisek. In addition to the Bielefeld issues, other German leather Notgeld from 1923 is known from Borna, Osterwieck, Paderborn and Pößneck.

Other issues from 1923 were printed on wood, which was also used in Canada in 1763-1764 during Pontiac’s Rebellion, and by the Hudson’s Bay Company. In 1848, in Bohemia, wooden checkerboard pieces were used as money.

Even playing cards were used for currency in France in the early 19th Century, and in French Canada from 1685 until 1757, in the Isle of Man in the beginning of the 19th Century, and again in Germany after World War I.

Vending machines and banknotes

People are not the only economic actors who are required to accept banknotes. In the late twentieth century machines were designed to recognize banknotes of the smaller values long after they were designed to recognize coins distinct from slugs. This capability has become inescapable in economies where inflation has not been followed by introduction of progressively larger coin denominations (such as the United States, where several attempts to introduce dollar coins in general circulation have largely failed). The existing infrastructure of such machines presents one of the difficulties in changing the design of these banknotes to make them less counterfeitable, that is, by adding additional features so easily discernible by people that they would immediately reject banknotes of inferior quality, for every machine in the country would have to be updated.

Destruction

Banknotes have a limited lifetime, after which they are collected for destruction, usually recycling or shredding. A banknote is removed from the money supply by banks or other financial institutions due to everyday wear and tear from its handling. Banknote bundles are passed through a sorting machine that determines whether a particular note needs to be shredded, or are removed from the supply chain by a human inspector if they are deemed unfit for continued use – for example, if they are mutilated or torn. Counterfeit banknotes are destroyed unless they are needed for evidentiary or forensic purposes.

Contaminated banknotes are also decommissioned. A Canadian government report indicates:

“

Types of contaminants include: notes found on a corpse, stagnant water, contaminated by human or animal body fluids such as urine, feces, vomit, infectious blood, fine hazardous powders from detonated explosives, dye pack and/or drugs…

”

These are removed from circulation primarily to prevent the spread of diseases.

When taken out of circulation, Australian bank notes are melted down and mixed together to form plastic garbage bins.

Paper money collecting as a hobby

Banknote collecting, or Notaphily, is a rapidly growing area of numismatics. Although generally not as widespread as coin and stamp collecting, the hobby is increasingly expanding. Prior to the 1990s, currency collecting was a relatively small adjunct to coin collecting, but the practice of currency auctions, combined with larger public awareness of paper money have caused a boom in interest and values of rare banknotes.

Catalogs

Collectors often use a catalog to find information about their banknotes or banknotes they may acquire.

In the 1950s, Robert Friedberg published the Paper Money of the United States. Friedberg devised an organizing number system of all types of U.S. banknotes; the system is widely accepted among collectors and dealers to this day, and the volume has been regularly updated.

Another pioneer of cataloging banknotes was Albert Pick, a well-known German notaphilist (born 15 May 1922 in Cologne) who published a number of catalogs of European paper money, and, in 1974, the first Standard Catalog of World Paper Money. His collection of over 180,000 banknotes was eventually housed at the Bavarian Mortgages and Exchange Bank (Bayerischen Hypotheken- und Wechselbank, now HypoVereinsbank). This catalog underwent several incarnations, and currently is published as a three volume group. Volume I, called Specialized Issues, includes notes issued by local authorities, which circulated in a limited area. Volume II called General Issues covers notes issued on a national scope, dated 1368 through 1960. Volume III covers Modern Issues dated 1960 to present. Each of the volumes is updated regularly, with Volume III now updated every year, Volumes I and II every 3 or so years. While Pick no longer edits the catalogs (since 1994 the honor has passed to George S. Cuhaj), the catalogs are still commonly referred to as ‘Pick Catalogs’ and dealers and collectors alike refer to banknotes by their ‘Pick number.’ Current issues of the three volumes include:

• Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: Specialized Issues (10th Ed. Vol. 1) by George S. Cuhaj. Paperback – 1200 pages. (January 2006).
• Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: General Issues to 1368-1960 (11th Ed. Vol. 2) by George S. Cuhaj (Editor). (December 2006).
• Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: Modern Issues, 1961-present (14th Ed. Vol. 3) by George S. Cuhaj. (June 2008).

Trades

For years, the mode of collecting banknotes was through a handful of mail order dealers who issued price lists and catalogs. In the early 1990s, it became more common for rare notes to be sold at various coin and currency shows via auction. The illustrated catalogs and “event nature” of the auction practice seemed to fuel a sharp rise in overall awareness of paper money in the numismatic community. Entire advanced collections are often sold at one time, and to this day single auctions can generate well in excess of $1 million dollars in gross sales. Today, eBay has surpassed auctions in terms of highest volume of sales of banknotes. However, as of 2005, rare banknotes still sell for much less than comparable rare coins. There is wide consensus in the paper money collecting arena that this disparity is diminishing as paper money prices continue to rise at a rapid rate.

There are many different organizations and societies around the world for the hobby including the International Bank Note Society (IBNS).

Banking in the United States: Banking in the United States is regulated by both the federal and state governments of the United States of America.

The US banking sector’s short-term liabilities as of October 11, 2008 are 15% of the GDP of the United States or 43% of its national debt, and the average bank leverage ratio (assets divided by net worth) is 12 to 1.

History

Early history – 1700s and 1800s

In 1781, an act of the Congress of the Confederation established the Bank of North America in Philadelphia, where it superseded the state-chartered Bank of Pennsylvania founded in 1780 to help fund the American Revolutionary War. The Bank of North America was granted a monopoly on the issue of bills of credit as currency at the national level. Prior to the ratification of the Articles of Confederation & Perpetual Union, only the States had sovereign power to charter a bank authorized to issue their own bills of credit. Afterwards, Congress also had that power.

Robert Morris, the first Superintendent of Finance appointed under the Articles of Confederation, proposed the Bank of North America as a commercial bank that would act as the sole fiscal and monetary agent for the government. He has accordingly been called “the father of the system of credit, and paper circulation, in the United States.”^[2] He saw a national, for-profit, private monopoly following in the footsteps of the Bank of England as necessary, because previous attempts to finance the Revolutionary War, such as continental currency emitted by the Continental Congress, had led to depreciation of such an extent that Alexander Hamilton considered them to be “public embarrassments.” After the war, a number of state banks were chartered, including in 1784: the Bank of New York and the Bank of Massachusetts.

After the US Constitution subsumed the Articles of Confederation, which still persist in the hard-copy edition of US Code Title 1 as a foundation stone of American government, Congress chartered in 1791 the First Bank of the United States to succeed the Bank of North America under Article One, Section 8. However, Congress failed to renew the charter for the Bank of the United States, which expired in 1811. Similarly, the Second Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816 and shuttered in 1836. Despite this (and more on the commercial banking side of the spectrum), in the early 1800s, up until around the mid-1800s, many of the smaller commercial banks within New England were easily chartered as laws allowed to do so (primarily due to open franchise laws). This private banking sector witnessed an array of insider lending, due primarily to low bank leverage and an information quality correlation, but many of these banks actually spurred early investment and helped spur many later projects. Despite what some may consider discriminatory practices with insider lending, these banks actually were very sound and failures remained uncommon, further encouraging the financial evolution in the United States.

The dual banking system – 1860s

In 1863, Congress passed the National Bank Act in an attempt to retire the greenbacks that it had issued to finance the North’s effort in the American Civil War.  This opened up an option for chartering banks nationally. As an additional incentive for banks to submit to Federal supervision, in 1865 Congress began taxing any issue of state bank notes (also called “bills of credit” or “scrip”) a standard rate of 10%, which encouraged many state banks to become national ones. This tax also gave rise to another response by state banks—the invention of the demand deposit account, also known as a chequeing account. By the 1880s, deposit accounts had changed the primary source of revenue for many banks. The result of these events is what is known as the “dual banking system.” New banks may choose either state or national charters (a bank also can convert its charter from one to the other).

National Banks, are the bank that have the word “National” or “N.A.” in the name of the bank (i.e. First National Bank, or Citibank N.A.) National Banks are regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Department of the Treasury.

The Federal Reserve System

The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 established the present day Federal Reserve System and brought all banks in the United States under the authority of the Federal Reserve (a quasi-governmental entity), creating the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks which are supervised by the Federal Reserve Board. Notwithstanding the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932 and the Banking Act of 1933 and the Banking Act of 1935, which were attempts to reform various banking abuses, the Federal Reserve System has remained more or less unchanged through to the present day. The Glass-Steagall Act was repealed in 1999, whereas the Banking Act of 1933 simply strengthened the supervisory powers of federal authorities and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Deregulation – 1980s

Legislation passed by the federal government during the 1980s, such as the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 and the Garn – St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, diminished the distinctions between banks and other financial institutions in the United States. This legislation is frequently referred to as “deregulation,” and it is often blamed for the failure of over 500 savings and loan associations between 1980 and 1988, and the subsequent failure of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) whose obligations were assumed by the FDIC in 1989. However, some critics of this viewpoint, particularly libertarians, have pointed out that the federal government’s attempts at deregulation granted easy credit to federally insured financial institutions, encouraging them to overextend themselves and (thus) fail.

Expansion of FDIC insurance – 1989

Until 1989, banks with national charters (national banks) were required to participate in the FDIC, while State Banks either were required to obtain FDIC insurance by state law or they could voluntarily join it (usually in an attempt to bolster their appearance of solvency). After enactment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act of 1989 (“FDICIA”), all commercial banks that accepted deposits were required to obtain FDIC insurance and to have a primary federal regulator (the Fed for state banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System, the FDIC for “nonmember” state banks, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for all National Banks).

Note: Federal Credit Unions are regulated by National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). Savings & Loan Associations (S&L) and Federal Savings Banks (FSB) are regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)

Temporary expansion of FDIC insurance – 2008

In 2008, due to the financial crisis, and to encourage businesses and high-net-worth individuals to keep their cash in the largest banks (rather than spreading it out), Congress temporarily increased the insurance limit to $250,000.

Active banks of the United States

A list of many commercial banks in the United States can be found at the website of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).^[4]. According to the FDIC, there were 8,430 FDIC-insured commercial banks in the United States as of August 22, 2008. Every member of the Federal Reserve System is listed here along with non-members who are also insured by the FDIC. This list does not include banks and investments that are not FDIC-insured.

Bank mergers and closures

Bank mergers happen for many reasons in normal business. For instance, to create a single larger bank in which operations of both banks can be streamlined or to acquire another banks brands. As well as due to regulators closing the institution due to unsafe and unsound business practices or inadequate capitalization and liquidity.

Banks are not allowed to go bankrupt in the United States. Accounts are insured up to $250,000 as of Oct 2008 per individual per bank by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Banks that are in danger of failing are either taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, administered temporarily and eventually sold off or merged with other banks. A List of banks seized by regulators and the assuming institutions can be obtained at Federal Deposit Insurance Corp – Failed Bank list.

Bankruptcy: Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor (“involuntary bankruptcy”) in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring. In the majority of cases, however, bankruptcy is initiated by the debtor (a “voluntary bankruptcy” that is filed by the insolvent individual or organization).

History

History and Development of Bankruptcy

The concept and origin of bankruptcy law as it is now known in the United States originated in England. The first English bankruptcy law is generally agreed to have been enacted in 1542. (34 and 35, Henry VIII, c.4 (1542) England.)

Actually, bankruptcy was originally planned as a remedy for creditors – not debtors. During the reign of King Henry VIII., bankruptcy law allowed a creditor to seize all of the assets of a trader who could not pay his debts. Additionally, on top of losing all of one’s property, the unfortunate debtor also lost his freedom and was subject to imprisonment for failure to pay his debts. This left the family of the debtor in the position of having to pay the debts in order to obtain the release of the debtor. As time progressed, however, so did the rights of debtors in England. In the 1700s, for example, debtors were often released from prison and many fled to the United States to live. Many immigrated to Georgia and Texas, which became known as debtors’ colonies. Finally, by the early 1800s in England, debtors were often released from prison and their debts discharged. However, for many years, bankruptcy continued to be a remedy favoring creditors, involuntary in nature and largely penal in character. It was generally used only against traders.

Under the English system, collusive bankruptcy (agreed upon by creditor and debtor) was codified by the English Act of 1825. This occurred when a trader filed a declaration of insolvency in the office of the Chancellor’s Secretary of Bankrupts which was then advertised. The advertised declaration supported a commission in bankruptcy to be issued. A law was thereafter enacted which declared that no commission grounded on this act of bankruptcy was to be “deemed invalid by reason of such declaration having been concerted or agreed upon between the bankrupt and any creditor or other person.” (6 Geo. IV, c.16, sections VI, VII (Eng.). Voluntary bankruptcy was not authorized until 1849. (12 and 13 Vict., c.106, section 93 (1849) (Eng.).

The subject of bankruptcy was given specific recognition upon the adoption of the United States Constitution in 1789. The United States Constitution says that Congress shall have power to establish “uniform laws on the subject of Bankruptcies” throughout the United States. U.S. CONST. I, section 8, Cl.4. Thus the law of bankruptcy, as enacted by Congress, is federal law. The first bankruptcy act enacted by Congress was in 1800. Bankruptcy Act of 1800, Ch. 6,2 Stat. 19. It was limited to traders and provided only for involuntary proceedings. Voluntary bankruptcy at that time was unknown.

Voluntary bankruptcy in the United States was established as an institution by the Acts of 1841 (Act of Aug. 19, 1841, section 1, 5 Stat. 440) and 1867 (Act of Mar. 2, 1867, section 11, 14 Stat. 521). From these early acts to the Bankruptcy Act of 1898, which established the modern concepts of debtor-creditor relations, to the Bankruptcy Act of 1938, widely known as the Chandler Act, and to subsequent acts, the scope of voluntary access to the bankruptcy system has been broadened and has made voluntary petitions more attractive to debtors.

The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978, commonly referred to as the Bankruptcy Code, constituted a major overhaul of the bankruptcy system. First of all, it covered cases filed after October 1, 1979. Second, the 1978 Act contained four titles: Title I was the amended Title 11 of the U.S. Code; Title II contained amendments to Title 28 of the U.S. Code and the Federal Rules of Evidence; Title III made the necessary changes in other federal legislation affected by the bankruptcy law changes; and Title IV provided for the repeal of pre-Code bankruptcy, the effective dates of portions of the new law, necessary savings provisions, interim housekeeping details, and the pilot program of the United States trustee.

Perhaps the most important changes to bankruptcy law under the 1978 Act, however, were to the courts themselves. The 1978 Act drastically altered the structure of the bankruptcy courts and conferred pervasive subject matter jurisdiction upon the judicial officers of the courts. The act granted the new courts jurisdiction over all “civil proceedings arising under title 11 or arising in or related to cases under title 11.” 28 U.S.C. §1471(b) (1976 ed. Supp.)

While the new courts were denominated adjuncts of the district court, they were in practice free standing courts. The expanded jurisdiction was to be exercised primarily by bankruptcy judges. The bankruptcy judge would continue to be an Article I judge, who was appointed for a set term.

The provisions of the 1978 Act came under scrutiny in the case of Northern Pipeline Construction Co. V. Marathon Pipeline Co., 458 U.S. 50, 102 S. Ct. 2858, 73 L. Ed.2d 598 [6 C.B.C.2d 785] (1982). In Marathon, the name by which this Supreme Court case is commonly referred, the Court held unconstitutional the broad grant of jurisdiction to bankruptcy judges because those judges were not appointed under and protected by the provisions of Article III of the Constitution. Under the United States Constitution, Article III judges hold their offices during good behavior (an appointment for life) and their salary cannot be cut during their continuance in office. Article I judges do not enjoy that kind of protection.

The jurisdictional challenge started when the debtor filed an adversary proceeding in bankruptcy court, which covered issues such as a breach of contract, warranty, and misrepresentation. The bankruptcy court denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss, which the defendant appealed to the District Court. The District Court held that 28 U.S.C. §1471 violated Article III of the United States Constitution because it delegated Article III powers to a non-Article III Court by its broad grant of jurisdiction to the bankruptcy courts. In a plurality opinion, the Supreme Court held that the broad grant of jurisdiction accorded bankruptcy courts by 28 U.S.C. ’1471 was an unconstitutional delegation of Article III powers to a non-Article III Court. Similarly, Section 241(a) of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978, by establishing the jurisdictional provisions set forth in 28 U.S.C. ’1471 was unconstitutional. The Court stayed its judgment until October 4, 1982 to give “Congress an opportunity to reconstitute the bankruptcy courts or to adopt other valid means of adjudication, without impairing the interim administration of the bankruptcy laws.” Id. 458 U.S. at 89.

After the stay had expired, Congress still failed to act. Instead a model “Emergency Rule” was adopted as a local rule by the district courts. The purpose of the rule was to avoid the collapse of the bankruptcy system, and it was a temporary measure to provide for the orderly administration of bankruptcy cases and proceedings after the judgment in Marathon. The rule remained in effect until enactment of the 1984 legislation on July 10, 1984. Although the constitutionality of the “Emergency Rule” was under constant attack, the Supreme Court consistently denied certiorari.

In 1984 the legislature revised the Bankruptcy Code and implemented the Bankruptcy Amendments and Federal Judgeship Act of 1984. The observation has been made that most of these amendments were taken out of Justice Brennan’s opinion in Marathon. Title 28 U.S.C. ‘ 157(a) and (b)(1), which govern the jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court state in part:

(a) Each district court may provide that any or all cases under title 11 and any or all proceedings arising under title 11 or arising in or related to a case under title 11 shall be referred to the bankruptcy judges for the district.

(b) (1) Bankruptcy judges may hear and determine all cases under title 11 and all core proceedings arising under title 11, or arising in a case under title 11, referred under subsection (a) of this section, and may enter appropriate orders and judgments, subject to review under section 158 of this title. [emphasis added]

Core proceedings as delineated by 28 U.S.C. §157, include but are not limited to:

(A) matters concerning the administration of the estate; (B) allowance or disallowance of claims against the estate or exemptions from property of the estate, and estimation of claims or interests for the purposes of confirming a plan under Chapter 11, 12, or 13 of title 11 but not the liquidation or estimation of contingent or unliquidated personal injury tort or wrongful death claims against the estate for purposes of distribution in a case under title 11; (C) counterclaims by the estate against persons filing claims against the estate; (D) orders in respect to obtaining credit; (E) orders to turn over property of the estate; (F) proceedings to determine, avoid, or recover preferences; (G) motions to terminate, annul, or modify the automatic stay; (H) proceedings to determine, avoid, or recover fraudulent conveyances; (I) determinations as to the dischargeability of particular debts; (J) objections to discharges; (K) determinations of the validity, extent or priority of liens; (L) confirmation of plans; (M) orders approving the use or lease of property, including the use of cash collateral; (N) orders approving the sale of property other than property resulting from claims brought by the estate against persons who have not filed claims against the estate; and (O) other proceedings affecting the liquidation of the assets of the estate or the adjustment of the debtor-creditor or the equity security holder relationship, except personal injury, tort or wrongful death claims.

Thus, in effect, Congress granted jurisdiction to an Article III court, namely the district court, and then authorized (by 28 U.S.C. §157) that this jurisdiction could be delegated to the bankruptcy court. The district court was also authorized to withdraw in whole or in part, any case or proceeding referred under Section 157, on its motion or on timely motion of any party, for cause shown.

By this act, with few exceptions, such as the trial of personal injury and wrongful death claims and matters that require consideration of both Title 11 and organizations or activities affecting interstate commerce, the new bankruptcy courts were allowed to exercise all of the subject matter jurisdiction of the district courts. Thus, bankruptcy courts were enabled to hear cases such as the Marathon case.

The Bankruptcy Amendments and Federal Judgeship Act of 1984 in many ways resembled the Bankruptcy Act of 1898. Among other things, the law provided for the redesignation of separate units for bankruptcy judges under the district court system. Bankruptcy cases pending on or filed after July 10, 1984, are subject to most of the amendments relating to bankruptcy jurisdiction.

The Bankruptcy Judges, United States Trustees, and Family Farmer Bankruptcy Act of 1986 made substantive changes relating to family farmers and established a permanent United States trustee system. The 1986 Act applies to cases filed since November 26, 1986.

The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1994 is effective as to cases filed on or after October 22, 1994. The reform act and the case law interpreting its provisions have a great impact upon the mortgage banking industry and the servicer of mortgage loans. The changes effectuated by this act are discussed in the chapters that follow.

The West

In ancient Greece, bankruptcy did not exist. If a man (since only locally born adult males could be citizens, all legal owners of property were men) owed and he could not pay, he and his entire household, whether wife, children or servants were forced into “debt slavery”, until the creditor recouped losses via their physical labor. Many city-states in ancient Greece limited debt slavery to a period of five years and debt slaves had protection of life and limb, which regular slaves did not enjoy. However, servants of the debtor could be retained beyond that deadline by the creditor and were often forced to serve their new lord for a lifetime, usually under significantly harsher conditions.

The word bankruptcy is formed from the ancient Latin bancus (a bench or table), and ruptus (broken). A “bank” originally referred to a bench, which the first bankers had in the public places, in markets, fairs, etc. on which they tolled their money, wrote their bills of exchange, etc. Hence, when a banker failed, he broke his bank, to advertise to the public that the person to whom the bank belonged was no longer in a condition to continue his business. As this practice was very frequent in Italy, it is said the term bankrupt is derived from the Italian banco rotto, broken bank (see e.g. Ponte Vecchio). Others choose rather to derive the word from the French banque, “table”, and route, “vestigium, trace”, by metaphor from the sign left in the ground, of a table once fastened to it and now gone. On this principle they trace the origin of bankrupts from the ancient Roman mensarii or argentarii, who had their tabernae or mensae in certain public places; and who, when they fled, or made off with the money that had been entrusted to them, left only the sign or shadow of their former station behind them.

Philip II of Spain had to declare four state bankruptcies in 1557, 1560, 1575 and 1596. Spain became the first sovereign nation in history to declare bankruptcy.

The characteristic discharge of debts was introduced to Anglo-American bankruptcy with the statute of 4 Anne ch. 17 in 1705, where the discharge of unpayable debts was offered as a reward to bankrupts who cooperated in the gathering of assets to pay what could be paid.

The East

Bankruptcy is also documented in East Asia. According to al-Maqrizi, the Yassa of Genghis Khan contained a provision that mandated the death penalty for anyone who became bankrupt three times.

From A Religious Context

In the Torah, or Old Testament, every seventh year is decreed by Mosaic Law as a Sabbath year wherein the release of all debts that are owed by the community is mandated, but not of “foreigners”.  The seventh Sabbath year, or forty-ninth year, is then followed by another Sabbath year known as the Year of Jubilee wherein the release of all debts is mandated, for fellow community members and foreigners alike, and the release of all debt-slaves is also mandated.  The Year of Jubilee is announced in advance on the Day of Atonement, or the tenth day of the seventh Biblical month, in the forty-ninth year by the blowing of trumpets throughout the land of Israel.

In Islamic teaching, according to the Quran, an insolvent person should be allowed time to be able to pay out his debt. This is recorded in the Quran’s second chapter (Sura Al-Baqara), Verse 280, which notes: “If the debtor is in a difficulty, grant him time till it is easy for him to repay. But if ye remit it by way of charity, that is best for you if ye only knew.”

Modern insolvency legislation and debt restructuring practices

The principal focus of modern insolvency legislation and business debt restructuring practices no longer rests on the elimination of insolvent entities but on the remodeling of the financial and organizational structure of debtors experiencing financial distress so as to permit the rehabilitation and continuation of their business.

Fraud

Bankruptcy fraud is a crime. While difficult to generalize across jurisdictions, common criminal acts under bankruptcy statutes typically involve concealment of assets, concealment or destruction of documents, conflicts of interest, fraudulent claims, false statements or declarations, and fee fixing or redistribution arrangements. Falsifications on bankruptcy forms often constitute perjury. Multiple filings are not in and of themselves criminal, but they may violate provisions of bankruptcy law. In the U.S., bankruptcy fraud statutes are particularly focused on the mental state of particular actions.

Bankruptcy fraud should be distinguished from strategic bankruptcy, which is not a criminal act, but may work against the filer.

All assets must be disclosed in bankruptcy schedules whether or not the debtor believes the asset has a net value. This is because once a bankruptcy petition is filed, it is for the creditors, not the debtor to decide whether a particular asset has value. The future ramifications of omitting assets from schedules can be quite serious for the offending debtor. A closed bankruptcy may be reopened by motion of a creditor or the U.S. trustee if a debtor attempts to later assert ownership of such an “unscheduled asset” after being discharged of all debt in the bankruptcy. The trustee may then seize the asset and liquidate it for the benefit of the (formerly discharged) creditors. Whether or not a concealment of such an asset should also be considered for prosecution as fraud and/or perjury would then be at the discretion of the judge and/or U.S. Trustee.

In individual countries

Australia

The Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Commonwealth) is the legislation that governs insolvency in Australia. Only individuals can become bankrupt; insolvent companies go into liquidation or administration (see administration (insolvency)). There are 3 “parts” of the act under which the vast majority of insolvencies fall. Part IV (Full Bankruptcy), Part IX Debt Agreements and Part X Personal Insolvency Agreements. Agreements refer specifically to arrangements between creditors and debtors while Part IV relates to full bankruptcy and is generally synonymous with “Bankruptcy”

A person or debtor can declare himself or herself bankrupt by lodging a debtor’s petition with the Official Receiver, which is the Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia (ITSA). A person can also be made bankrupt after a creditor’s petition results in the making of a sequestration order in the Federal Magistrates Court. To declare bankruptcy or for a creditors petition to be lodged a minimum of $2000 debt is required.

All bankrupts are required to lodge a Statement of Affairs document with ITSA, which includes important information about their assets and liabilities. A bankruptcy cannot be annulled until this document has been lodged.

Part IV (Full bankruptcy) lasts three years from the filing of the Statement of Affairs with ITSA, during which restrictions under the act apply and is recorded on credit reports for a further 4 years during which no restrictions apply. In the case of a debtor’s petition, the Statement of Affairs is filed with the petition and the three year period commences immediately. However, in the case of a creditor’s petition, the Statement of Affairs will rarely be filed on the same day the court order is made. If the bankrupt fails to lodge the document within a certain period of time, he or she can be prosecuted.

A Bankruptcy Trustee (in most cases ITSA)is appointed to ensure that the debtor complies with the Bankruptcy Act. Their main focus is ensuring that creditors receive any funds that they are eligible to receive under the ACT. These funds are derived from 2 main areas: the debtors assets and the debtors wages. There are certain assets that are protected, referred to as “protected assets”. These assets include household furniture and appliances, tools of the trade and vehicles up to a certain value. All other assets will be sold and the funds distributed amongst their creditors. The debtor will also have to pay 50% of their income above a threshold, these are referred to as “income contributions”.

If the debtor does not comply with the provision of documents, their designated income contributions or asset sales the Trustee may have grounds to lodge an Objection to Discharge and the bankruptcy can be extended for a further two or five years, depending on the reason for the objection.

Bankrupts must also obtain the permission of his or her trustee to travel overseas. Failure to do so may result in the bankrupt being stopped at the airport by the Australian Federal Police.

Bankruptcies can be annulled prior to the expiration of the normal three year period if all debts are paid out in full. Sometimes a bankrupt may be able to raise enough funds to make an Offer of Composition to creditors, which would have the effect of paying the creditors some of the money they are owed. If the creditors accept the offer, the bankruptcy can be annulled after the funds are received.

Certain limited information on Bankruptcy Law in Australia can be found at the ITSA web site.

Brazil

In Brazil, the Bankruptcy Law (11,101/05) disciplines the judicial or extrajudicial recuperation & Bankruptcy and is applicable only to private companies, except financial institution, credit cooperative, consortia, entity of supplementary schemes, society that operates health care plan, society of capitalization and other entities legally treated as issues. It’s also not applicable to public companies.

The law covers three legal proceedings. The first is the bankruptcy (“Falência”). The bankruptcy is the judicial liquidation procedure for an insolvent merchant that promotes the removal of the debtor of its activities, aiming preserve and optimize the productive use of assets, assets and productive resources, including intangible assets, of the company. The final goal of the bankruptcy is the liquidation of the assets of the company and payment of the debtors.

The second one in the Judicial Recuperation (“Recuperação Judicial”). Its goal is to allow the overcoming of the economic-financial crisis situation of the debtor, in order to allow the continuation of the source producer, the employment of workers and the interests of creditors, promoting, thus, the preservation of the company, its social function and stimulate the economic activity. It’s a judiciary procedure required by the debtor who exercice its activities more than 2 years and have to be approval by the judge.

The Extrajudicial Recuperation (“Recuperação Extrajudicial”) is a private negotiation that involves creditors and debtors and, as the judicial recuperation, also have to be approved by Judiciary power.

Canada

Main article: Bankruptcy in Canada

Bankruptcy in Canada is set out by federal law, in the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and is applicable to businesses and individuals. The office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy, a federal agency, is responsible for ensuring that bankruptcies are administered in a fair and orderly manner. Trustees in bankruptcy administer bankruptcy estates.

Bankruptcy is filed when a person or a company becomes insolvent and cannot pay their debts as they become due.

Duties of trustees

Some of the duties of the trustee in bankruptcy are to:

• Review the file for any fraudulent preferences or reviewable transactions
• Chair meetings of creditors
• Sell any non-exempt assets
• Object to the bankrupt’s discharge
• Distribute funds to creditors

Creditors’ meetings

Creditors become involved by attending creditors’ meetings. The trustee calls the first meeting of creditors for the following purposes:

• To consider the affairs of the bankrupt
• To affirm the appointment of the trustee or substitute another in place thereof
• To appoint inspectors
• To give such directions to the trustee as the creditors may see fit with reference to the administration of the estate.

Consumer proposals in Canada

In Canada, a person can file a consumer proposal as an alternative to bankruptcy. A consumer proposal is a negotiated settlement between a debtor and their creditors.

A typical proposal would involve a debtor making monthly payments for a maximum of five years, with the funds distributed to their creditors. Even though most proposals call for payments of less than the full amount of the debt owing, in most cases, the creditors will accept the deal, because if they don’t, the next alternative may be personal bankruptcy, where the creditors will get even less money. The creditors have 45 days to accept or reject the consumer proposal. Once the proposal is accepted the debtor makes the payments to the Proposal Administrator each month, and the creditors are prevented from taking any further legal or collection action. If the proposal is rejected, the debtor may have no alternative but to declare personal bankruptcy.

A consumer proposal can only be made by a debtor with debts in excess of $5,000 to a maximum of $75,000 (not including the mortgage on their principal residence). If debts are greater than $75,000, the proposal must be filed under Division 1 of Part III of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. The assistance of a Proposal Administrator is required. A Proposal Administrator is generally a licensed trustee in bankruptcy, although the Superintendent of Bankruptcy may appoint other people to serve as administrators.

In 2006, there were 98,450 personal insolvency filings in Canada: 79,218 bankruptcies and 19,232 consumer proposals.

China

The Enterprise Bankruptcy Law of the People’s Republic of China (trial Implementation) was first passed in 1986. Twenty years later, the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law of the PRC was introduced on 27 August, 2006. It contains 136 articles, almost 100 more than the 1986 law and consequently it is thought be more complete legally. Nevertheless, the new law came into force on 1 June, 2007 at that time replacing the 1986 trial Bankruptcy law.

The Bankruptcy Code of PRC was adopted in 2006.8.27, and became effective since 2007.6.1

• Chapter 8 reorganization
• Chapter 9 Exemption
• Chapter 10 liquidation

The code only applies to the mainland of China. In Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, there are different laws.

The Netherlands

The Dutch bankruptcy law is governed by the Dutch Bankruptcy Code (“Faillissementswet”). The code covers three separate legal proceedings. The first is the bankruptcy (“Faillissement”). The goal of the bankruptcy is the liquidation of the assets of the company. The bankruptcy applies to individuals and companies. The second legal proceeding in the Faillissementswet is the “Surseance”. The Surseance only applies to companies. Its goal is to reach an agreement with the creditors of the company. The third proceeding is the “Schuldsanering”. This proceeding is designed for individuals only.

Switzerland

Main article: Insolvency law of Switzerland

Under Swiss law, bankruptcy can be a consequence of insolvency. It is a court-ordered form of debt enforcement proceedings that applies, in general, to registered commercial entities only. In a bankruptcy, all assets of the debtor are liquidated under the administration of the creditors, although the law provides for debt restructuring options similar to those under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy code.

Sweden

In Sweden, bankruptcy (Swedish: konkurs) is a process that can be done for companies and for private people. A creditor or the company itself can apply for bankruptcy. A person or a company in bankruptcy can not access its assets with some exceptions. It is common for companies in Sweden to reduce their debts through bankruptcy. The owner or a new owner starts a new company that buys the important assets including the name from the old company, which is left behind with its debts.

The formal bankruptcy process is rarely done for individuals. Creditors can claim money through the Enforcement Administration anyway, and people themselves don’t benefit from it at all, because there are extra costs and the debts remain. People who are really insolvent can clean their debts with a process called debt cleaning (Swedish:skuldsanering). After an application they get a payment plan where they pay as much as they can for five years, and then all remaining debts are canceled. This process was introduced in 2006. Before that, all debts remained during the life of a person.

United Kingdom

Main articles: Bankruptcy in the United Kingdom, Liquidation, and Administration (insolvency)

In the United Kingdom, bankruptcy (in a strict legal sense) relates only to individuals and partnerships. Companies and other corporations enter into differently-named legal insolvency procedures: liquidation and administration (administration order and administrative receivership). However, the term ‘bankruptcy’ is often used when referring to companies in the media and in general conversation. Bankruptcy in Scotland is referred to as sequestration.

A trustee in bankruptcy must be either an Official Receiver (a civil servant) or a licensed insolvency practitioner.

Current law in England and Wales derives in large part from the enactment of the Insolvency Act 1986. Following the introduction of the Enterprise Act 2002, a UK bankruptcy will now normally last no longer than 12 months and may be less, if the Official Receiver files in Court a certificate that his investigations are complete.

It was expected that the UK Government’s liberalization of the UK bankruptcy regime would increase the number of bankruptcy cases; The Insolvency Service statistics appear to bear this out -

UK Bankruptcy statistics
Year	Bankruptcies	IVA’s	Total
2004	35,989	10,752	46,741
2005	47,291	20,293	67,584
2006	62,956	44,332	107,288
2007	64,480	42,165	106,645
2008	67,428	39,116	106,544

After the increase in 2005 and 2006 the figures have remained stable.

Bankruptcy and Pensions in the UK

The UK bankruptcy law was changed in May 2000, effective May 29, 2000. Debtors may now retain occupational pensions while in bankruptcy, except in rare cases.

United States

Main article: Bankruptcy in the United States

Bankruptcy in the United States is a matter placed under Federal jurisdiction by the United States Constitution (in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4), which allows Congress to enact “uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States.” The Congress has enacted statute law governing bankruptcy, primarily in the form of the Bankruptcy Code, located at Title 11 of the United States Code. Federal law is amplified by state law in some places where Federal law fails to speak or expressly defers to state law.

While bankruptcy cases are always filed in United States Bankruptcy Court (an adjunct to the U.S. District Courts), bankruptcy cases, particularly with respect to the validity of claims and exemptions, are often dependent upon State law. State law therefore plays a major role in many bankruptcy cases, and it is often not possible to generalize bankruptcy law across state lines.

Generally, a debtor declares bankruptcy to obtain relief from debt, and this is accomplished either through a discharge of the debt or through a restructuring of the debt. Generally, when a debtor files a voluntary petition, his or her bankruptcy case commences.

Chapters

There are six types of bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy Code, located at Title 11 of the United States Code:

• Chapter 7: basic liquidation for individuals and businesses; also known as straight bankruptcy; it is the simplest and quickest form of bankruptcy available
• Chapter 9: municipal bankruptcy; a federal mechanism for the resolution of municipal debts
• Chapter 11: rehabilitation or reorganization, used primarily by business debtors, but sometimes by individuals with substantial debts and assets; known as corporate bankruptcy, it is a form of corporate financial reorganization which typically allows companies to continue to function while they follow debt repayment plans
• Chapter 12: rehabilitation for family farmers and fishermen;
• Chapter 13: rehabilitation with a payment plan for individuals with a regular source of income; enables individuals with regular income to develop a plan to repay all or part of their debts; also known as Wage Earner Bankruptcy
• Chapter 15: ancillary and other international cases; provides a mechanism for dealing with bankruptcy debtors and helps foreign debtors to clear debts.

The most common types of personal bankruptcy for individuals are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. As much as 65% of all U.S. consumer bankruptcy filings are Chapter 7 cases. Corporations and other business forms file under Chapters 7 or 11.

In Chapter 7, a debtor surrenders his or her non-exempt property to a bankruptcy trustee who then liquidates the property and distributes the proceeds to the debtor’s unsecured creditors. In exchange, the debtor is entitled to a discharge of some debt; however, the debtor will not be granted a discharge if he or she is guilty of certain types of inappropriate behavior (e.g. concealing records relating to financial condition) and certain debts (e.g. spousal and child support, student loans, some taxes) will not be discharged even though the debtor is generally discharged from his or her debt. Many individuals in financial distress own only exempt property (e.g. clothes, household goods, an older car) and will not have to surrender any property to the trustee. The amount of property that a debtor may exempt varies from state to state. Chapter 7 relief is available only once in any eight year period. Generally, the rights of secured creditors to their collateral continues even though their debt is discharged. For example, absent some arrangement by a debtor to surrender a car or “reaffirm” a debt, the creditor with a security interest in the debtor’s car may repossess the car even if the debt to the creditor is discharged.

The 2005 amendments to the Bankruptcy Code introduced the “means test” for eligibility for chapter 7. An individual who fails the means test will have his or her chapter 7 case dismissed or may have to convert his or her case to a case under chapter 13.

Generally, a trustee will sell most of the debtor’s assets to pay off creditors. However, certain assets of the debtor are protected to some extent. For example, Social Security payments, unemployment compensation, and limited values of your equity in a home, car, or truck, household goods and appliances, trade tools, and books are protected. However, these exemptions vary from state to state. Therefore, it is advisable to consult an experienced bankruptcy attorney.

In Chapter 13, the debtor retains ownership and possession of all of his or her assets, but must devote some portion of his or her future income to repaying creditors, generally over a period of three to five years. The amount of payment and the period of the repayment plan depend upon a variety of factors, including the value of the debtor’s property and the amount of a debtor’s income and expenses. Secured creditors may be entitled to greater payment than unsecured creditors.

Relief under Chapter 13 is available only to individuals with regular income whose debts do not exceed prescribed limits. If you’re an individual or a sole proprietor, you are allowed to file for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to repay all or part of your debts. Under this chapter, you can propose a repayment plan in which to pay your creditors over three to five years. If your monthly income is less than the state’s median income, your plan will be for three years unless the court finds “just cause” to extend the plan for a longer period. If your monthly income is greater than your state’s median income, the plan must generally be for five years. A plan cannot exceed the five-year limitation.

In contrast to Chapter 7, the debtor in Chapter 13 may keep all of his or her property, whether or not exempt. If the plan appears feasible and if the debtor complies with all the other requirements, the bankruptcy court will typically confirm the plan and the debtor and creditors will be bound by its terms. Creditors have no say in the formulation of the plan other than to object to the plan, if appropriate, on the grounds that it does not comply with one of the Code’s statutory requirements. Generally, the payments are made to a trustee who in turn disburses the funds in accordance with the terms of the confirmed plan.

When the debtor completes payments pursuant to the terms of the plan, the court will formally grant the debtor a discharge of the debts provided for in the plan. However, if the debtor fails to make the agreed upon payments or fails to seek or gain court approval of a modified plan, a bankruptcy court will often dismiss the case on the motion of the trustee. Pursuant to the dismissal, creditors will typically resume pursuit of state law remedies to the extent a debt remains unpaid.

In Chapter 11, the debtor retains ownership and control of its assets and is re-termed a debtor in possession (“DIP”). The debtor in possession runs the day to day operations of the business while creditors and the debtor work with the Bankruptcy Court in order to negotiate and complete a plan. Upon meeting certain requirements (e.g. fairness among creditors, priority of certain creditors) creditors are permitted to vote on the proposed plan. If a plan is confirmed the debtor will continue to operate and pay its debts under the terms of the confirmed plan. If a specified majority of creditors do not vote to confirm a plan, additional requirements may be imposed by the court in order to confirm the plan.

Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 are the efficient bankruptcy chapters often used by most individuals. The chapters which almost always apply to consumer debtors are chapter 7, known as a “straight bankruptcy”, and chapter 13, which involves an affordable plan of repayment. An important feature applicable to all types of bankruptcy filings is the automatic stay. The automatic stay means that the mere request for bankruptcy protection automatically stops and brings to a grinding halt most lawsuits, repossessions, foreclosures, evictions, garnishments, attachments, utility shut-offs, and debt collection harassment.

Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA)

Main article: Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act

The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-8, 119 Stat. 23 (April 20, 2005) (“BAPCPA”), substantially amended the Bankruptcy Code. Many provisions of BAPCPA were forcefully advocated by consumer lenders and were just as forcefully opposed by many consumer advocates, bankruptcy academics, bankruptcy judges, and bankruptcy lawyers. The enactment of BAPCPA followed nearly eight years of debate in Congress. Most of the law’s provisions became effective on October 17, 2005. Upon signing the bill, President Bush stated:

Under the new law, Americans who have the ability to pay will be required to pay back at least a portion of their debts. Those who fall behind their state’s median income will not be required to pay back their debts. The new law will also make it more difficult for serial filers to abuse the most generous bankruptcy protections. Debtors seeking to erase all debts will now have to wait eight years from their last bankruptcy before they can file again. The law will also allow us to clamp down on bankruptcy mills that make their money by advising abusers on how to game the system.

Among its many changes to consumer bankruptcy law, BAPCPA enacted a “means test”, which was intended to make it more difficult for a significant number of financially distressed individual debtors whose debts are primarily consumer debts to qualify for relief under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. The “means test” is employed in cases where an individual with primarily consumer debts has more than the average annual income for a household of equivalent size, computed over a 180 day period prior to filing. If the individual must “take” the “means test”, their average monthly income over this 180 day period is reduced by a series of allowances for living expenses and secured debt payments in a very complex calculation that may or may not accurately reflect that individual’s actual monthly budget. If the results of the means test show no disposable income(or in some cases a very small amount) then the individual qualifies for Chapter 7 relief. If a debtor does not qualify for relief under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code, either because of the Means Test or because Chapter 7 does not provide a permanent solution to delinquent payments for secured debts, such as mortgages or vehicle loans, the debtor may still seek relief under Chapter 13 of the Code. A Chapter 13 plan often does not require repayment to general unsecured debts, such as credit cards or medical bills.

BAPCPA also requires individuals seeking bankruptcy relief to undertake credit counseling with approved counseling agencies prior to filing a bankruptcy petition and to undertake education in personal financial management from approved agencies prior to being granted a discharge of debts under either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. Some studies of the operation of the credit counseling requirement suggest that it provides little benefit to debtors who receive the counseling because the only realistic option for many is to seek relief under the Bankruptcy Code.

Europe in general

During 2004, the number of insolvencies reached all time highs in many European countries. In France, company insolvencies rose by more than 4%, in Austria by more than 10%, and in Greece by more than 20%. The increase in the number of insolvencies, however, does not indicate the total financial impact of insolvencies in each country because there is no indication of the size of each case. An increase in the number of bankruptcy cases does not necessarily entail an increase in bad debt write-off rates for the economy as a whole.

Bankruptcy statistics are also a trailing indicator. There is a time delay between financial difficulties and bankruptcy. In most cases, several months or even years pass between the financial problems and the start of bankruptcy proceedings. Legal, tax, and cultural issues may further distort bankruptcy figures, especially when comparing on an international basis. Two examples:

• In Austria, more than half of all potential bankruptcy proceedings in 2004 were not opened, due to insufficient funding.
• In Spain, it is not economically profitable to open insolvency/bankruptcy proceedings against certain types of businesses, and therefore the number of insolvencies is quite low. For comparison: In France, more than 40,000 insolvency proceedings were opened in 2004, but under 600 were opened in Spain. At the same time the average bad debt write-off rate in France was 1.3% compared to Spain with 2.6%.

The insolvency numbers for private individuals also do not show the whole picture. Only a fraction of heavily indebted households will decide to file for insolvency. Two of the main reasons for this are the stigma of declaring themselves insolvent and the potential business disadvantage.

Basis points: A basis point (often denoted as bp or %00.; rarely, per myriad) is a unit relating to interest rates that is equal to 1/100th of a percentage point per annum. It is frequently but not exclusively used to express differences in interest rates of less than 1% pa. It avoids the ambiguity between relative and absolute discussions about rates. For example, a “1% increase” from a 10% interest rate could refer to an increase either from 10% to 10.1% (relative), or from 10% to 11% (absolute).

It is common practice in the financial industry to use basis points to denote a rate change in a financial instrument, or the difference (spread) between two interest rates, including the yields of fixed-income securities.

Since certain loans and bonds may commonly be quoted in relation to some index or underlying security, they will often be quoted as a spread over (or under) the index. For example, a loan that bears interest of 0.50% per annum above LIBOR is said to be 50 basis points over LIBOR, which is commonly expressed as “L+50bps” or simply “L+50″.

Bear market: A bear market is a general decline in the stock market over a period of time. It is accompanied by widespread investor fear and pessimism.

According to The Vanguard Group, “While there’s no agreed-upon definition of a bear market, one generally accepted measure is a price decline of 20% or more over at least a two-month period.”
Best-efforts underwriting: In investment banking, an underwriting contract is a contract between an underwriter and an issuer of securities.  In the best efforts contract the underwriter agrees to sell as many shares as possible at the agreed-upon price.

The following types of underwriting contracts are most common.

• In the firm commitment contract the underwriter guarantees the sale of the issued stock at the agreed-upon price. For the issuer, it is the safest but the most expensive type of the contracts, since the underwriter takes the risk of sale.
• In the best efforts contract the underwriter agrees to sell as many shares as possible at the agreed-upon price.
• Under the all-or-none contract the underwriter agrees either to sell the entire offering or to cancel the deal.
• Stand-by underwriting, also known as strict underwriting or old-fashioned underwriting is a form of stock insurance: the issuer contracts the underwriter for the latter to purchase the shares the issuer failed to sell under stockholders‘ subscription and applications.

Bid offer spread: The bid/offer spread (also known as bid/ask or buy/sell spread) for securities (such as stock, futures contracts, options, or currency pairs) is the difference between the price quoted by a market maker for an immediate sale (bid) and an immediate purchase (ask). The size of the bid-offer spread in a given commodity is a measure of the liquidity of the market and the size of the transaction cost.

The trader initiating the transaction is said to demand liquidity, and the other party (counterparty) to the transaction supplies liquidity. Liquidity demanders place market orders and liquidity suppliers place limit orders. For a round trip (a purchase and sale together) the liquidity demander pays the spread and the liquidity supplier earns the spread. All limit orders outstanding at a given time (i.e., limit orders that have not been executed) are together called the Limit Order Book. In some markets such as NASDAQ, dealers supply liquidity. However, on most exchanges, such as the Australian Securities Exchange, there are no designated liquidity suppliers, and liquidity is supplied by other traders. On these exchanges, and even on NASDAQ, institutions and individuals can supply liquidity by placing limit orders.

The bid-ask spread is an accepted measure of liquidity costs in exchange traded securities and commodities. On any standardized exchange two elements comprise almost all of the transaction cost – brokerage fees and bid-ask spreads. Under competitive conditions the bid-ask spread measures the cost of making transactions without delay. The difference in price paid by an urgent buyer and received by an urgent seller is the liquidity cost. Since brokerage commissions do not vary with the time taken to complete a transaction, differences in bid-ask spread indicate differences in the liquidity cost.

Example: Currency spread

If the current bid price for the EUR/USD currency pair is 1.5760 and the current ask price is 1.5763. This means that currently you can sell the EUR/USD at 1.5760 and buy at 1.5763. The difference between those prices is the spread. If the USD/JPY currency pair is currently trading at 101.89 by 92 which is another way of saying that the bid for the USD/JPY 101.89 and the ask is 101.92. This means that we can currently sell USD/JPY at 101.89 and buy at 101.92.

Example: Stock spread

On United States stock exchanges, the minimum spread (also known as the tick size) for many shares was 12.5 cents (one-eighth of a dollar) until 2001, when the exchanges converted from fractional to decimal pricing, enabling spreads as small as one cent. The change was mandated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in order to provide a fairer market for the individual investor.
Bid price: A bid price is the highest price that a buyer (i.e., bidder) is willing to pay for a good. It is usually referred to simply as the “bid.”

In bid and ask, the bid price stands in contrast to the ask price or “offer”, and the difference between the two is called the bid/ask spread.

An unsolicited bid or offer is when a person or company receives a bid even though they are not looking to sell. A bidding war is said to occur when a large number of bids are placed in rapid succession by two or more entities, especially when the price paid is much greater than the ask price, or greater than the first bid in the case of unsolicited bidding.

In the context of stock trading on a stock exchange, the bid price is the highest price a buyer of a stock is willing to pay for a share of that given stock. The bid price displayed in most quote services is the highest bid price in the market. The ask or offer price on the other hand is the lowest price a seller of a particular stock is willing to sell a share of that given stock. The ask or offer price displayed is the lowest ask/offer price in the market (Stock market).
Block trade: In finance, a block trade is a trade that is usually at least 10,000 shares of a stock or $200,000 of bonds. It can also refer specifically to large trades that occur between institutional parties at a fixed price.

For instance, an insurance company may hold a large stake in a company that they would like to liquidate completely. If this were put into the market as a large sell order, the price would sharply drop — by definition, the stake was large enough to affect supply and demand. Instead, the first company may arrange for a block trade with another company through an investment bank, benefiting both parties: the selling company gets a more attractive purchase price, while the purchasing company can negotiate a discount off the market rates. Unlike large public offerings, for which it often takes months to prepare the necessary documentation, block trades are usually carried out at short notice and closed quickly.

Block trading is a useful measure for analysts in order to assess where institutional investors are pricing a stock. Because in a merger or acquisition, a bid needs to “clear the market” (i.e. enough shareholders need to tender), it is most useful to see at what prices large “blocks” of stock are trading. These prices imply what the largest shareholders are willing to sell their shares for; thus in block trading analysis, small trades are ignored to avoid skewing the data.
Blue Chip Stocks: A blue chip stock is the stock of a well-established company having stable earnings and no extensive liabilities. The term derives from casinos, where blue chips stand for counters of the highest value. For example, Blue Swiss is the stock of a well-established Swiss bank. Blue chip stocks pay regular dividends, even when business is faring worse than usual.

The phrase was coined by Oliver Gingold of Dow Jones sometime in 1923 or 1924. Company folklore recounts that the term apparently got its start when Gingold was standing by the stock ticker at the brokerage firm that later became Merrill Lynch. Noticing several trades at USD$200 or USD$250 a share or more, he said to Lucien Hooper of W.E. Hutton & Co. that he intended to return to the office to “write about these blue chip stocks.” Thus the phrase was born. It has been in use ever since, originally in reference to high-priced stocks, more commonly used today to refer to high-quality stocks. In contemporary media, Blue Chips and their daily performances are frequently mentioned alongside other economic averages like the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Book value: In accounting, book value or carrying value is the value of an asset according to its balance sheet account balance. For assets, the value is based on the original cost of the asset less any depreciation, amortization or impairment costs made against the asset. Traditionally, a company’s book value is its total assets minus intangible assets and liabilities. However, in practice, depending on the source of the calculation, book value may variably include goodwill, intangible assets, or both. When intangible assets and goodwill are explicitly excluded, the metric is often specified to be “tangible book value”.

In the United Kingdom, the term net asset value may refer to the book value of a company.

Bond In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest (the coupon) and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity. A bond is a formal contract to repay borrowed money with interest at fixed intervals.

Thus a bond is like a loan: the issuer is the borrower (debtor), the holder is the lender (creditor), and the coupon is the interest. Bonds provide the borrower with external funds to finance long-term investments, or, in the case of government bonds, to finance current expenditure. Certificates of deposit (CDs) or commercial paper are considered to be money market instruments and not bonds. Bonds must be repaid at fixed intervals over a period of time.

Bonds and stocks are both securities, but the major difference between the two is that stockholders have an equity stake in the company (i.e., they are owners), whereas bondholders have a creditor stake in the company (i.e., they are lenders). Another difference is that bonds usually have a defined term, or maturity, after which the bond is redeemed, whereas stocks may be outstanding indefinitely. An exception is a consol bond, which is a perpetuity (i.e., bond with no maturity).

Issuing bonds

Bonds are issued by public authorities, credit institutions, companies and supranational institutions in the primary markets. The most common process of issuing bonds is throughunderwriting. In underwriting, one or more securities firms or banks, forming a syndicate, buy an entire issue of bonds from an issuer and re-sell them to investors. The security firm takes the risk of being unable to sell on the issue to end investors. However government bonds are instead typically auctioned.

Features of bonds

The most important features of a bond are:

Nominal, principal or face amount — the amount on which the issuer pays interest, and which has to be repaid at the end.

Issue price — the price at which investors buy the bonds when they are first issued, which will typically be approximately equal to the nominal amount. The net proceeds that the issuer receives are thus the issue price, less issuance fees.

Maturity date — the date on which the issuer has to repay the nominal amount. As long as all payments have been made, the issuer has no more obligations to the bond holders after the maturity date. The length of time until the maturity date is often referred to as the term or tenor or maturity of a bond. The maturity can be any length of time, although debt securities with a term of less than one year are generally designated money market instruments rather than bonds. Most bonds have a term of up to thirty years. Some bonds have been issued with maturities of up to one hundred years, and some even do not mature at all. In early 2005, a market developed in euros for bonds with a maturity of fifty years. In the market for U.S. Treasury securities, there are three groups of bond maturities:

• short term (bills): maturities up to one year;
• medium term (notes): maturities between one and ten years;
• long term (bonds): maturities greater than ten years.

Coupon — the interest rate that the issuer pays to the bond holders. Usually this rate is fixed throughout the life of the bond. It can also vary with a money market index, such as LIBOR, or it can be even more exotic. The name coupon originates from the fact that in the past, physical bonds were issued which had coupons attached to them. On coupon dates the bond holder would give the coupon to a bank in exchange for the interest payment.

The quality of the issue, which influences the probability that the bondholders will receive the amounts promised, at the due dates. This will depend on a whole range of factors.

Indentures and Covenants — An indenture is a formal debt agreement that establishes the terms of a bond issue, while covenants are the clauses of such an agreement. Covenants specify the rights of bondholders and the duties of issuers, such as actions that the issuer is obligated to perform or is prohibited from performing. In the U.S., federal and state securities and commercial laws apply to the enforcement of these agreements, which are construed by courts as contracts between issuers and bondholders. The terms may be changed only with great difficulty while the bonds are outstanding, with amendments to the governing document generally requiring approval by a majority (or super-majority) vote of the bondholders.

High yield bonds are bonds that are rated below investment grade by the credit rating agencies. As these bonds are more risky than investment grade bonds, investors expect to earn a higher yield. These bonds are also called junk bonds.

coupon dates — the dates on which the issuer pays the coupon to the bond holders. In the U.S. and also in the U.K. and Europe, most bonds are semi-annual, which means that they pay a coupon every six months.

Optionality: Occasionally a bond may contain an embedded option; that is, it grants option-like features to the holder or the issuer:

Callability — Some bonds give the issuer the right to repay the bond before the maturity date on the call dates; see call option. These bonds are referred to as callable bonds. Most callable bonds allow the issuer to repay the bond at par. With some bonds, the issuer has to pay a premium, the so called call premium. This is mainly the case for high-yield bonds. These have very strict covenants, restricting the issuer in its operations. To be free from these covenants, the issuer can repay the bonds early, but only at a high cost.

Putability — Some bonds give the holder the right to force the issuer to repay the bond before the maturity date on the put dates; see put option. (Note: “Putable” denotes an embedded put option; “Puttable” denotes that it may be putted.)

Call dates and put dates—the dates on which callable and putable bonds can be redeemed early. There are four main categories.

A Bermudan callable has several call dates, usually coinciding with coupon dates.

A European callable has only one call date. This is a special case of a Bermudan callable.

An American callable can be called at any time until the maturity date.

A death put is an optional redemption feature on a debt instrument allowing the beneficiary of the estate of the deceased to put (sell) the bond (back to the issuer) in the event of the beneficiary’s death or legal incapacitation. Also known as a “survivor’s option”.

Sinking fund provision of the corporate bond indenture requires a certain portion of the issue to be retired periodically. The entire bond issue can be liquidated by the maturity date. If that is not the case, then the remainder is called balloon maturity. Issuers may either pay to trustees, which in turn call randomly selected bonds in the issue, or, alternatively, purchase bonds in open market, then return them to trustees.

Convertible bond lets a bondholder exchange a bond to a number of shares of the issuer’s common stock.

Exchangeable bond allows for exchange to shares of a corporation other than the issuer.

Types of bonds

The following descriptions are not mutually exclusive, and more than one of them may apply to a particular bond.

• Fixed rate bonds have a coupon that remains constant throughout the life of the bond.
• Floating rate notes (FRNs) have a variable coupon that is linked to a reference rate of interest, such as LIBOR or Euribor. For example the coupon may be defined as three month USD LIBOR + 0.20%. The coupon rate is recalculated periodically, typically every one or three months.
• Zero-coupon bonds pay no regular interest. They are issued at a substantial discount to par value, so that the interest is effectively rolled up to maturity (and usually taxed as such). The bondholder receives the full principal amount on the redemption date. An example of zero coupon bonds is Series E savings bonds issued by the U.S. government. Zero-coupon bonds may be created from fixed rate bonds by a financial institution separating “stripping off” the coupons from the principal. In other words, the separated coupons and the final principal payment of the bond may be traded separately. See IO (Interest Only) and PO (Principal Only).
• Inflation linked bonds, in which the principal amount and the interest payments are indexed to inflation. The interest rate is normally lower than for fixed rate bonds with a comparable maturity (this position briefly reversed itself for short-term UK bonds in December 2008). However, as the principal amount grows, the payments increase with inflation. The United Kingdom was the first sovereign issuer to issue inflation linked Gilts in the 1980s. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) and I-bonds are examples of inflation linked bonds issued by the U.S. government.
• Other indexed bonds, for example equity-linked notes and bonds indexed on a business indicator (income, added value) or on a country’s GDP.
• Asset-backed securities are bonds whose interest and principal payments are backed by underlying cash flows from other assets. Examples of asset-backed securities are mortgage-backed securities(MBS’s), collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).
• Subordinated bonds are those that have a lower priority than other bonds of the issuer in case of liquidation. In case of bankruptcy, there is a hierarchy of creditors. First the liquidator is paid, then government taxes, etc. The first bond holders in line to be paid are those holding what is called senior bonds. After they have been paid, the subordinated bond holders are paid. As a result, the risk is higher. Therefore, subordinated bonds usually have a lower credit rating than senior bonds. The main examples of subordinated bonds can be found in bonds issued by banks, and asset-backed securities. The latter are often issued in tranches. The senior tranches get paid back first, the subordinated tranches later.
• Perpetual bonds are also often called perpetuities. They have no maturity date. The most famous of these are the UK Consols, which are also known as Treasury Annuities or Undated Treasuries. Some of these were issued back in 1888 and still trade today, although the amounts are now insignificant. Some ultra long-term bonds (sometimes a bond can last centuries: West Shore Railroad issued a bond which matures in 2361 (i.e. 24th century)) are virtually perpetuities from a financial point of view, with the current value of principal near zero.
• Bearer bond is an official certificate issued without a named holder. In other words, the person who has the paper certificate can claim the value of the bond. Often they are registered by a number to prevent counterfeiting, but may be traded like cash. Bearer bonds are very risky because they can be lost or stolen. Especially after federal income tax began in the United States, bearer bonds were seen as an opportunity to conceal income or assets.  U.S. corporations stopped issuing bearer bonds in the 1960s, the U.S. Treasury stopped in 1982, and state and local tax-exempt bearer bonds were prohibited in 1983.
• Registered bond is a bond whose ownership (and any subsequent purchaser) is recorded by the issuer, or by a transfer agent. It is the alternative to a Bearer bond. Interest payments, and the principal upon maturity, are sent to the registered owner.
• Municipal bond is a bond issued by a state, U.S. Territory, city, local government, or their agencies. Interest income received by holders of municipal bonds is often exemptfrom the federal income tax and from the income tax of the state in which they are issued, although municipal bonds issued for certain purposes may not be tax exempt.
• Book-entry bond is a bond that does not have a paper certificate. As physically processing paper bonds and interest coupons became more expensive, issuers (and banks that used to collect coupon interest for depositors) have tried to discourage their use. Some book-entry bond issues do not offer the option of a paper certificate, even to investors who prefer them.^[4]
• Lottery bond is a bond issued by a state, usually a European state. Interest is paid like a traditional fixed rate bond, but the issuer will redeem randomly selected individual bonds within the issue according to a schedule. Some of these redemptions will be for a higher value than the face value of the bond.
• War bond is a bond issued by a country to fund a war.
• Serial bond is a bond that matures in installments over a period of time. In effect, a $100,000, 5-year serial bond would mature in a $20,000 annuity over a 5-year interval.
• Revenue bond is a special type of municipal bond distinguished by its guarantee of repayment solely from revenues generated by a specified revenue-generating entity associated with the purpose of the bonds. Revenue bonds are typically “non-recourse,” meaning that in the event of default, the bond holder has no recourse to other governmental assets or revenues.

Bonds issued in foreign currencies

Some companies, banks, governments, and other sovereign entities may decide to issue bonds in foreign currencies as it may appear to be more stable and predictable than their domestic currency. Issuing bonds denominated in foreign currencies also gives issuers the ability to access investment capital available in foreign markets. The proceeds from the issuance of these bonds can be used by companies to break into foreign markets, or can be converted into the issuing company’s local currency to be used on existing operations. Foreign issuer bonds can also be used to hedge foreign exchange rate risk. Some of these bonds are called by their nicknames, such as the “samurai bond.”

• Eurodollar bond, a U.S. dollar-denominated bond issued by a non-U.S. entity outside the U.S^[5]
• Kangaroo bond, an Australian dollar-denominated bond issued by a non-Australian entity in the Australian market
• Maple bond, a Canadian dollar-denominated bond issued by a non-Canadian entity in the Canadian market
• Samurai bond, a Japanese yen-denominated bond issued by a non-Japanese entity in the Japanese market
• Shibosai Bond is a private placement bond in Japanese market with distribution limited to institutions and banks.
• Yankee bond, a US dollar-denominated bond issued by a non-US entity in the US market
• Shogun bond, a non-yen-denominated bond issued in Japan by a non-Japanese institution or government^[6]
• Bulldog bond, a pound sterling-denominated bond issued in London by a foreign institution or government
• Matrioshka bond, a Russian rouble-denominated bond issued in the Russian Federation by non-Russian entities. The name derives from the famous Russian wooden dolls, Matrioshka, popular among foreign visitors to Russia
• Arirang bond, a Korean won-denominated bond issued by a non-Korean entity in the Korean market^[7]
• Kimchi bond, a non-Korean won-denominated bond issued by a non-Korean entity in the Korean market^[8]
• Formosa bond, a non-New Taiwan Dollar-denominated bond issued by a non-Taiwan entity in the Taiwan market^[9]
• Panda bond, a Chinese renminbi-denominated bond issued by a non-China entity in the People’s Republic of China market^[10]
• State of Israel bond, a bond denominated in multiple currencies issued by the State of Israel through the Development Corporation of Israel.

Trading and valuing bonds

See also: Bond valuation

The interest rate that the issuer of a bond must pay is influenced by a variety of factors, such as current market interest rates, the length of the term and the creditworthiness of the issuer.

These factors are likely to change over time, so the market price of a bond will vary after it is issued. This price is expressed as a percentage of nominal value. Bonds are not necessarily issued at par (100% of face value, corresponding to a price of 100), but bond prices converge to par when they approach maturity (if the market expects the maturity payment to be made in full and on time) as this is the price the issuer will pay to redeem the bond. At other times, prices can be above par (bond is priced at greater than 100), which is called trading at a premium, or below par (bond is priced at less than 100), which is called trading at a discount. Most government bonds are denominated in units of $1000, if in the United States, or in units of £100, if in the United Kingdom. Hence, a deep discount US bond, selling at a price of 75.26, indicates a selling price of $752.60 per bond sold. (Often, in the US, bond prices are quoted in points and thirty-seconds of a point, rather than in decimal form.) Some short-term bonds, such as the U.S.Treasury Bill, are always issued at a discount, and pay par amount at maturity rather than paying coupons. This is called a discount bond.

The market price of a bond is the present value of all expected future interest and principal payments of the bond discounted at the bond’s redemption yield, or rate of return. That relationship defines the redemption yield on the bond, which represents the current market interest rate for bonds with similar characteristics. The yield and price of a bond are inversely related so that when market interest rates rise, bond prices fall and vice versa. Thus the redemption yield could be considered to be made up of two parts: the current yield (see below) and the expected capital gain or loss: roughly the current yield plus the capital gain (negative for loss) per year until redemption.

The market price of a bond may include the accrued interest since the last coupon date. (Some bond markets include accrued interest in the trading price and others add it on explicitly after trading.) The price including accrued interest is known as the “full” or “dirty price“. (See also Accrual bond.) The price excluding accrued interest is known as the “flat” or “clean price“.

The interest rate adjusted for (divided by) the current price of the bond is called the current yield (this is the nominal yield multiplied by the par value and divided by the price).

The relationship between yield and maturity for otherwise identical bonds is called a yield curve.

Bonds markets, unlike stock or share markets, often do not have a centralized exchange or trading system. Rather, in most developed bond markets such as the U.S., Japan and western Europe, bonds trade in decentralized, dealer-based over-the-counter markets. In such a market, market liquidity is provided by dealers and other market participants committing risk capital to trading activity. In the bond market, when an investor buys or sells a bond, the counterparty to the trade is almost always a bank or securities firm acting as a dealer. In some cases, when a dealer buys a bond from an investor, the dealer carries the bond “in inventory.” The dealer’s position is then subject to risks of price fluctuation. In other cases, the dealer immediately resells the bond to another investor.

Bond markets can also differ from stock markets in that, in some markets, investors sometimes do not pay brokerage commissions to dealers with whom they buy or sell bonds. Rather, the dealers earn revenue by means of the spread, or difference, between the price at which the dealer buys a bond from one investor — the “bid” price — and the price at which he or she sells the same bond to another investor–the “ask” or “offer” price. The bid/offer spread represents the total transaction cost associated with transferring a bond from one investor to another.

Investing in bonds

Bonds are bought and traded mostly by institutions like pension funds, insurance companies and banks. Most individuals who want to own bonds do so through bond funds. Still, in the U.S., nearly 10% of all bonds outstanding are held directly by households.

Sometimes, bond markets rise (while yields fall) when stock markets fall. More relevantly, the volatility of bonds (especially short and medium dated bonds) is lower than that of shares. Thus bonds are generally viewed as safer investments than stocks, but this perception is only partially correct. Bonds do suffer from less day-to-day volatility than stocks, and bonds’ interest payments are often higher than the general level of dividend payments. Bonds are liquid  – it is fairly easy to sell one’s bond investments, though not nearly as easy as it is to sell stocks  – and the comparative certainty of a fixed interest payment twice per year is attractive. Bondholders also enjoy a measure of legal protection: under the law of most countries, if a company goes bankrupt, its bondholders will often receive some money back (the recovery amount), whereas the company’s stock often ends up valueless. However, bonds can also be risky:

Fixed rate bonds are subject to interest rate risk, meaning that their market prices will decrease in value when the generally prevailing interest rates rise. Since the payments are fixed, a decrease in the market price of the bond means an increase in its yield. When the market interest rate rises, the market price of bonds will fall, reflecting investors’ ability to get a higher interest rate on their money elsewhere — perhaps by purchasing a newly issued bond that already features the newly higher interest rate. Note that this drop in the bond’s market price does not affect the interest payments to the bondholder at all, so long-term investors who want a specific amount at the maturity date need not worry about price swings in their bonds and do not suffer from interest rate risk.

Price changes in a bond will also immediately affect mutual funds that hold these bonds. If the value of the bonds held in a trading portfolio has fallen over the day, the value of the portfolio will also have fallen. This can be damaging for professional investors such as banks, insurance companies, pension funds and asset managers (irrespective of whether the value is immediately “marked to market” or not). If there is any chance a holder of individual bonds may need to sell his bonds and “cash out”, interest rate risk could become a real problem. (Conversely, bonds’ market prices would increase if the prevailing interest rate were to drop, as it did from 2001 through 2003.) One way to quantify the interest rate risk on a bond is in terms of its duration. Efforts to control this risk are called immunization or hedging.

Bond prices can become volatile depending on the credit rating of the issuer – for instance if the credit rating agencies like Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s upgrade or downgrade the credit rating of the issuer. A downgrade will cause the market price of the bond to fall. As with interest rate risk, this risk does not affect the bond’s interest payments (provided the issuer does not actually default), but puts at risk the market price, which affects mutual funds holding these bonds, and holders of individual bonds who may have to sell them.

A company’s bondholders may lose much or all their money if the company goes bankrupt. Under the laws of many countries (including the United States and Canada), bondholders are in line to receive the proceeds of the sale of the assets of a liquidated company ahead of some other creditors. Bank lenders, deposit holders (in the case of a deposit taking institution such as a bank) and trade creditors may take precedence.

There is no guarantee of how much money will remain to repay bondholders. As an example, after an accounting scandal and a Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the giant telecommunications company Worldcom, in 2004 its bondholders ended up being paid 35.7 cents on the dollar. In a bankruptcy involving reorganization or recapitalization, as opposed to liquidation, bondholders may end up having the value of their bonds reduced, often through an exchange for a smaller number of newly issued bonds.

Some bonds are callable, meaning that even though the company has agreed to make payments plus interest towards the debt for a certain period of time, the company can choose to pay off the bond early. This creates reinvestment risk, meaning the investor is forced to find a new place for his money, and the investor might not be able to find as good a deal, especially because this usually happens when interest rates are falling.

Bond indices

See also: Bond market index

A number of bond indices exist for the purposes of managing portfolios and measuring performance, similar to the S&P 500 or Russell Indexes for stocks. The most common American benchmarks are the (ex)Lehman Aggregate, Citigroup BIG and Merrill Lynch Domestic Master. Most indices are parts of families of broader indices that can be used to measure global bond portfolios, or may be further subdivided by maturity and/or sector for managing specialized portfolios.

Bond duration: In finance, the duration of a financial asset measures the sensitivity of the asset’s price to interest rate movements. There are various definitions of duration and derived quantities, discussed below. If not otherwise specified, “duration” generally means the Macaulay duration, as defined below.

Duration is the percent change in a bond’s price function with respect to interest rate. Thus the duration is the absolute change with respect to interest rate, divided by the current price. Duration is known in other settings as the ? or Lambda. The absolute change in a bond’s price with respect to interest rate (? or Delta) is referred to as the dollar duration.

The units of duration are years, and duration is always between 0 years and the time to maturity of the bond, with duration equal to time to maturity if and only if the bond is a zero-coupon bond. In contrast, a floating-rate bond (a bond who’s coupon’s are adjusted to reflect the rate of inflation) will always have a duration equal to the duration of its coupon payments.

The units may seem surprising; it can be understood via dimensional analysis as the ratio of “percentage change in price” over “change in interest rates”: the numerator has no dimensions (or units of %), while the denominator has dimensions of 1/Time (units of %/year, as interest rates are quoted is percentage per year). Thus the ratio has dimension of Time, units of Years.

More concretely, this can be understood because more distant cash flows are more sensitive to interest rates, as measured via yield: when taking the present value via discounted cash flows of a bond, one discounts each future cash flow by the yield plus one to the power of the number of years when that cash flow occurs: (1 + y) ^{? n} – thus the present value of more distant future cash flows are more sensitive to changes in yield. In particular, the duration of a zero-coupon bond (one with a single cash flow at maturity) is the time to maturity of the bond. How to define the duration of bonds with intermediate cash flows is subtler, as discussed below.

Price

Duration is useful primarily as a measure of the sensitivity of a bond’s market price to interest rate (ie yield) movements. It is approximately equal to the percentage change in price for a given change in yield. For example, for small interest rate changes, the duration is the approximate percentage by which the value of the bond will fall for a 1% per annum increase in market interest rate. So a 15-year bond with a duration of 7 would fall approximately 7% in value if the interest rate increased by 1% per annum. ^[1] In other words, duration is the elasticity of the bond’s price with respect to interest rates.

Definition

The standard definition of duration is Macaulay duration, the PV-weighted average number of years to receive each cash flow, defined as:

where:

• i indexes the cash flows,
• P(i) is the present value of each cash payment from an asset (or each expense from a liability) i,
• t(i) is the time in years until each payment will be received (or when each expense is due),
• V is the present value of all cash payments from the asset (or all expenses from the liability, thus net present value) until maturity, and
• D is the duration.

A more naïve definition is to weight by the size of cash flows, not the present value, but, as Macaulay discusses, this does not provide a good measure of the sensitivity to changes in interest rates.

Both these definitions give a weighted average (weights sum to 1) of time to receive cash flows, and thus fall between 0 (the minimum time), or more precisely t(1) (the time to the first payment) and the time to maturity of the bond (the maximum time), with equality if and only if the bond only has a single payment at maturity, namely is a zero-coupon bond; in symbols, if cash flows are in order:

with the inequalities being strict unless it has a single cash flow.

Cash flow

As stated above, the duration is the weighted average term to payment of the cash flows on a bond. For a zero-coupon the duration will be ?T = T_f ? T₀, where T_f is the maturity date and T₀ is the starting date of the bond. If there are additional cash flows C_i at times T_i, the duration of every cash flow is ?T_i = T_i ? T₀. From the current market price of the bond V, one can calculate the yield to maturity of the bond rusing the formula

Note that in this and subsequent formulae, the symbol r is used for the force of interest, i.e. the logarithm of (1+j) where j is the interest yield expressed as an annual effective yield.

In a standard duration calculation, the overall yield of the bond is used to discount each cash flow leading to this expression in which the sum of the weights is 1:

The higher the coupon rate of a bond, the shorter the duration (if the term of the bond is kept constant). Duration is always less than or equal to the overall life (to maturity) of the bond. Only a zero coupon bond (a bond with no coupons) will have duration equal to the maturity.

Duration indicates also how much the value V of the bond changes in relation to a small change of the rate of the bond. We see that

so that for a small variation  in the redemption yield of the bond we have

That means that the duration gives the negative of the relative variation of the value of a bond with respect to a variation in the redemption yield on the bond, forgetting the quadratic and higher-order terms. The quadratic terms are taken into account in the convexity.

As we have seen above, r = ln(1 + j).

If  (which could be defined as the Modified Duration) is required, then it is given by:

and this relationship holds good whatever the frequency of convertibility of j.

Dollar duration

The dollar duration is defined as the product of the duration and the price (value): it is the change in price in dollars, not in percentage, and has units of Dollar-Years (Dollars times Years). It gives the dollar variation in a bond’s value for a small variation in the yield.

Application to VaR

Dollar duration D_$ is commonly used for VaR (Value-at-Risk) calculation. If V = V(r) denotes the value of a security depending on the interest rate r, dollar duration can be defined as

To illustrate applications to portfolio risk management, consider a portfolio of securities dependent on the interest rates  as risk factors, and let

denote the value of such portfolio. Then the exposure vector  has components

Accordingly, the change in value of the portfolio can be approximated as

that is, a component that is linear in the interest rate changes plus an error term which is at least quadratic. This formula can be used to calculate the VaR of the portfolio by ignoring higher order terms. Typically cubic or higher terms are truncated. Quadratic terms, when included, can be expressed in terms of (multi-variate) bond convexity. One can make assumptions about the joint distribution of the interest rates and then calculate VaR by Monte Carlo simulation or, in some special cases (e.g., Gaussian distribution assuming a linear approximation), even analytically. The formula can also be used to calculate the DV01 of the portfolio (cf. below) and it can be generalized to include risk factors beyond interest rates.

Macaulay duration

Macaulay duration, named for Frederick Macaulay who introduced the concept, is the weighted average maturity of a bond where the weights are the relative discounted cash flows in each period.

It will be seen that this is the same formula for the duration as given above.

Macaulay showed that an unweighted average maturity is not useful in predicting interest rate risk. He gave two alternative measures that are useful:

• The theoretically correct Macaulay-Weil duration which uses zero-coupon bond prices as discount factors, and
• the more practical form (shown above) which uses the bond’s yield to maturity to calculate discount factors.

The key difference between the two is that the Macaulay-Weil duration allows for the possibility of a sloping yield curve, whereas the algebra above is based on a constant value of r, the yield, not varying by term to payment.

With the use of computers, both forms may be calculated, but the Macaulay duration is still widely used.

In case of continuously compounded yield the Macaulay duration coincides with the opposite of the partial derivative of the price of the bond with respect to the yield—as shown above. In case of yearly compounded yield, the modified duration coincides with the latter.

Modified duration

In case of n times compounded yield, the relation

is not valid anymore. That is why the modified duration D ^* is used instead:

where r is the yield to maturity of the bond, and n is the number of cashflows per year.

Let us prove that the relation

is valid. We will analyze the particular case n = 1. The value (price) of the bond is

where i is the number of years to the cash flow C_i. The duration, defined as the weighted average maturity, is then

The derivative of V with respect to r is:

multiplying by  we obtain

or

from which we can deduce the formula

which is valid for yearly compounded yield.

Embedded options and effective duration

For bonds that have embedded options, such as puttable and callable bonds, Macaulay duration will not correctly approximate the price move for a change in yield.

In order to price such bonds, one must use option pricing to determine the value of the bond, and then one can compute its delta (and hence its lambda), which is the duration. The effective duration is a discrete approximation to this latter, and depends on an option pricing model.

Consider a bond with an embedded put option. As an example, a $1,000 bond that can be redeemed by the holder at par at any time before the bond’s maturity (ie an American put option). No matter how high interest rates become, the price of the bond will never go below $1,000 (ignoring counterparty risk). This bond’s price sensitivity to interest rate changes is different from a non-puttable bond with otherwise identical cashflows. Bonds that have embedded options can be analyzed using “effective duration”. Effective duration is a discrete approximation of the slope of the bond’s value as a function of the interest rate.

where ? y is the amount that yield changes, and

V _{? ?y} and V _{+ ?y}

are the values that the bond will take if the yield falls by y or rises by y, respectively. However this value will vary depending on the value used for ? y.

Spread duration

Sensitivity of a bond’s market price to a change in Option Adjusted Spread (OAS). Thus the index, or underlying yield curve, remains unchanged.

Average duration

The sensitivity of a portfolio of bonds such as a bond mutual fund to changes in interest rates can also be important. The average duration of the bonds in the portfolio is often reported. The duration of a portfolio equals the weighted average maturity of all of the cash flows in the portfolio. If each bond has the same yield to maturity, this equals the weighted average of the portfolio’s bond’s durations. Otherwise the weighted average of the bond’s durations is just a good approximation, but it can still be used to infer how the value of the portfolio would change in response to changes in interest rates.

Bond duration closed-form formula

FV = par value
C = coupon payment per period (half-year)
i = discount rate per period (half-year)
a = fraction of a period remaining until next coupon payment
m = number of coupon dates until maturity
P = bond price (present value of cash flows discounted with rate i)

Convexity

Main article: Bond convexity

Duration is a linear measure of how the price of a bond changes in response to interest rate changes. As interest rates change, the price does not change linearly, but rather is a convex function of interest rates. Convexity is a measure of the curvature of how the price of a bond changes as the interest rate changes. Specifically, duration can be formulated as the first derivative of the price function of the bond with respect to the interest rate in question, and the convexity as the second derivative.

Convexity also gives an idea of the spread of future cashflows. (Just as the duration gives the discounted mean term, so convexity can be used to calculate the discounted standard deviation, say, of return.)

Note that convexity can be both positive and negative. A bond with positive convexity will not have any call features – ie the issuer must redeem the bond at maturity – which means that as rates fall, its price will rise.

On the other hand, a bond with call features – ie where the issuer can redeem the bond early – is deemed to have negative convexity, which is to say its price should fall as rates fall. This is because the issuer can redeem the old bond at a high coupon and re-issue a new bond at a lower rate, thus providing the issuer with valuable optionality.

Mortgage-backed securities (pass-through mortgage principal prepayments) with US-style 15 or 30 year fixed rate mortgages as collateral are examples of callable bonds.

PV01 and DV01

PV01 is the present value impact of 1 basis point move in an interest rate. It is often used as a price alternative to duration (a time measure). When the PV01 is in USD, it is the same as DV01 (Dollar Value of 1 basis point).

Confused notions

Duration, in addition to having several definitions, is often confused with other notions, particularly various properties of bonds that are measured in years.

Duration is sometimes explained inaccurately as being a measurement of how long, in years, it takes for the price of a bond to be repaid by its internal cash flows. This quantity is the duration of a perpetual bond (assuming a flat yield curve at the coupon), and is simply  or the tenor, whichever is shorter. For instance, if a bond pays 5% per annum and was issued at par, it will take 20 years of these payments to repay its price. Note the absurdity of interpreting duration this way: given a bond paying 5% per annum with a tenor of 5 years, the duration is approximately 4.37, whereas the price of the bond will not be repaid in full until maturity (at 5 years).

The Weighted-Average Life is the weighted average of the principal repayments of an amortizing loan, and is longer than the duration.
Broker: A broker is a party that mediates between a buyer and a seller. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Distinguish agent: one who acts on behalf of a principal. A “brokerage” or a “brokerage firm” is a business that acts as a broker. A brokerage firm is a business that specializes in trading stocks. A sales person working for a securities or commodity brokerage firm is popularly (but incorrectly) called a “broker.” A broker in that context is, strictly speaking, an exchange member who is actually executing the purchase or sales order in the ‘pit’, on the exchange, as a service to the client of the firm for which that salesman works.
Broker/Dealer: A brokerage firm.  A stock broker or stockbroker is a regulated professional broker who buys and sells shares and other securities through market makers or Agency Only Firms on behalf of investors.

Regulation

United States

See: Securities regulation in the United States

In the United States, broker-dealers are regulated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a unit of the US government. Some regulatory authority is further delegated to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a self-regulatory organization. Many states also regulate broker-dealers under separate state securities laws (called “Blue sky laws“).^[1]

The 1934 Act defines “broker” as “any person engaged in the business of effecting transactions in securities for the account of others,” and defines “dealer” as “any person engaged in the business of buying and selling securities for his own account, through a broker or otherwise.” Under either definition, the person must be performing these functions as a business; if conducting similar transactions on a private basis, they are considered a trader and subject to different requirements.^[2]

United Kingdom

UK securities law uses the term intermediary to refer to businesses involved in the purchase and sale of securities for the account of others.

The Financial Services Authority authorizes and regulates companies engaging in such activity as “regulated activities”^[3] under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

Japan

The common Japanese term for a broker-dealer is “securities company” (???? sh?ken-gaisha^?). Securities companies are regulated by the Financial Services Agency under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Law. The “big three” are Nomura Holdings, Daiwa Securities Group and Nikko Cordial (a subsidiary of Citigroup). Most major commercial banks in Japan also maintain broker-dealer subsidiaries, as do many foreign commercial banks and investment banks.

Securities companies must be organized as kabushiki kaisha with a statutory auditor or auditing committee, and must maintain minimum shareholder equity of ¥50 million.
Bull market: A bull market is associated with increasing investor confidence, and increased investing in anticipation of future price increases capital gains. A bullish market trend in the stock market often begins before the general economy shows clear signs of recovery.

Business entity: A business (also called a company, enterprise or firm) is a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods and/or services to consumers.^[1] Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, most being privately owned and formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners and grow the business itself. The owners and operators of a business have as one of their main objectives the receipt or generation of a financial return in exchange for work and acceptance of risk. Notable exceptions include cooperative enterprises and state-owned enterprises. Businesses can also be formed not-for-profit or be state-owned.

The etymology of “business” relates to the state of being busy either as an individual or society as a whole, doing commercially viable and profitable work. The term “business” has at least three usages, depending on the scope — the singular usage (above) to mean a particular company or corporation, the generalized usage to refer to a particular market sector, such as “the music business” and compound forms such as agribusiness, or the broadest meaning to include all activity by the community of suppliers of goods and services. However, the exact definition of business, like much else in the philosophy of business, is a matter of debate.

Basic forms of ownership

Although forms of business ownership vary by jurisdiction, there are several common forms:

• Sole proprietorship: A sole proprietorship is a business owned by one person. The owner may operate on his or her own or may employ others. The owner of the business has personal liability of the debts incurred by the business.
• Partnership: A partnership is a form of business in which two or more people operate for the common goal which is often making profit. In most forms of partnerships, each partner has personal liability of the debts incurred by the business. There are three typical classifications of partnerships: general partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships.
• Corporation: A corporation is a limited liability entity that has a separate legal personality from its members. A corporation can be organized for-profit or not-for-profit. A corporation is owned by multiple shareholders and is overseen by a board of directors, which hires the business’s managerial staff. In addition to privately-owned corporate models, there are state-owned corporate models.
• Cooperative: Often referred to as a “co-op”, a cooperative is a limited liability entity that can organize for-profit or not-for-profit. A cooperative differs from a corporation in that it has members, as opposed to shareholders, who share decision-making authority. Cooperatives are typically classified as either consumer cooperatives or worker cooperatives. Cooperatives are fundamental to the ideology of economic democracy.

For a country-by-country listing of legally recognized business forms, see Types of business entity.