Glossary of Industry Terms & Supporting Information

ICON Securities Lending (D – E)

Debt: Debt is that which is owed; usually referencing assets owed, but the term can also cover moral obligations and other interactions not requiring money. In the case of assets, debt is a means of using future purchasing power in the present before a summation has been earned. Some companies and corporations use debt as a part of their overall corporate finance strategy.

A debt is created when a creditor agrees to lend a sum of assets to a debtor. In modern society, debt is usually granted with expected repayment; in many cases, plus interest. Historically, debt was responsible for the creation of indentured servants.

Etymology

The word comes from the Old French dette and ultimately Latin debere (to owe), from de habere (to have). The letter b in the word debt was reintroduced in the 17th century, possibly by Samuel Johnson in his Dictionary of 1755— several other words that had existed without a b had them reinserted at around that time.

Payment

Before a debt can be made, both the debtor and the creditor must agree on the manner in which the debt will be repaid, known as the standard of deferred payment. This payment is usually denominated as a sum of money in units of currency, but can sometimes be denominated in terms of goods. Payment can be made in increments over a period of time, or all at once at the end of the loan agreement.

Types of debt

A company uses various kinds of debt to finance its operations. The various types of debt can generally be categorized into: 1) secured and unsecured debt, 2) private and public debt, 3) syndicated and bilateral debt, and 4) other types of debt that display one or more of the characteristics noted above.

A debt obligation is considered secured if creditors have recourse to the assets of the company on a proprietary basis or otherwise ahead of general claims against the company. Unsecured debt comprises financial obligations, where creditors do not have recourse to the assets of the borrower to satisfy their claims.

Private debt comprises bank-loan type obligations, whether senior or mezzanine. Public debt is a general definition covering all financial instruments that are freely tradeable on a public exchange or over the counter, with few if any restrictions.

Loan syndication is a risk management tool that allows the lead banks underwriting the debt to reduce their risk and free up lending capacity.

A basic loan is the simplest form of debt. It consists of an agreement to lend a principal sum for a fixed period of time, to be repaid by a certain date. In commercial loans interest, calculated as a percentage of the principal sum per year, will also have to be paid by that date.

In some loans, the amount actually loaned to the debtor is less than the principal sum to be repaid; the additional principal has the same economic effect as a higher interest rate (see point (mortgage)).

A syndicated loan is a loan that is granted to companies that wish to borrow more money than any single lender is prepared to risk in a single loan, usually many millions of dollars. In such a case, a syndicate of banks can each agree to put forward a portion of the principal sum.

A bond is a debt security issued by certain institutions such as companies and governments. A bond entitles the holder to repayment of the principal sum, plus interest. Bonds are issued to investors in a marketplace when an institution wishes to borrow money. Bonds have a fixed lifetime, usually a number of years; with long-term bonds, lasting over 30 years, being less common. At the end of the bond’s life the money should be repaid in full. Interest may be added to the end payment, or can be paid in regular installments (known as coupons) during the life of the bond. Bonds may be traded in the bond markets, and are widely used as relatively safe investments in comparison to equity.

Debt Syndication

There are two types of debt syndication–Fund base and Non fund base.

Fund Base

Cash Credit

This is the primary method in which Banks lend money against the security of commodities and debt. It runs like a current account except that the money that can be withdrawn from this account is not restricted to the amount deposited in the account. Instead, the account holder is permitted to withdraw a certain sum called “limit”, “credit facility” in excess of the amount deposited in the account. Cash Credits are, in theory, payable on demand. These are, therefore, counter part of demand deposits of the Bank.

Working capital:

Firms need cash to pay for all their day-to-day activities. They have to pay wages, pay for raw materials, pay bills and so on. The money available to them to do this is known as the firm’s working capital. The main sources of working capital are the current assets as these are the short-term assets that the firm can use to generate cash. However, the firm also has current liabilities and so these have to be taken account of when working out how much working capital a firm has at its disposal.

Working capital is therefore:- WORKING CAPITAL = Current Assets || stock + debtors + cash – Current liabilities Thus working capital is the same as net current assets, and is an important part of the top half of the firm’s balance sheet. It is vital to a business to have sufficient working capital to meet all its requirements. Many businesses have gone under, not because they were unprofitable, but because they suffered from shortages of working capital. Working Capital Cycle

Bank Overdraft:

The word overdraft means the act of overdrawing from a Bank account. In other words, the account holder withdraws more money from a Bank Account than has been deposited in it. An overdraft occurs when withdrawals from a bank account exceed the available balance which gives the account a negative balance – a person can be said to be “overdrawn”.

If there is a prior agreement with the account provider for an overdraft protection plan, and the amount overdrawn is within this authorized overdraft, then interest is normally charged at the agreed rate. If the balance exceeds the agreed terms, then fees may be charged and higher interest rate might apply

Term loan:

Term Loan are the counter parts of Fixed Deposits in the Bank. Banks lend money in this mode when the repayment is sought to be made in fixed, pre-determined installments. This type of loan is normally given to the borrowers for acquiring long term assets i.e. assets which will benefit the borrower over a long period (exceeding at least one year). Purchases of plant and machinery, constructing building for factory, setting up new projects fall in this category. Financing for purchase of automobiles, consumer durables, real estate and creation of infra structure also falls in this category.

Bill discounting:

Bill discounting is a major activity with some of the smaller Banks. Under this type of lending, Bank takes the bill drawn by borrower on his(borrower’s) customer and pay him or her immediately deducting some amount as discount/commission. The Bank then presents the Bill to the borrower’s customer on the due date of the Bill and collect the total amount. If the bill is delayed, the borrower or his customer pay the Bank a pre-determined interest depending upon the terms of transaction.

Project Financing:

Project finance is the financing of long-term infrastructure and industrial projects based upon a complex financial structure where project debt and equity are used to finance the project, rather than the balance sheets of project sponsors. Usually, a project financing structure involves a number of equity investors, known as sponsors, as well as a syndicate of banks that provide loans to the operation.

Non Fund Base

Letter of Credit:

The LC can also be the source of payment for a transaction, meaning that redeeming the letter of credit will pay an exporter. Letters of credit are used primarily in international trade transactions of significant value, for deals between a supplier in one country and a customer in another. They are also used in the land development process to ensure that approved public facilities (streets, sidewalks, stormwater ponds, etc.) will be built. The parties to a letter of credit are usually a beneficiary who is to receive the money, the issuing bank of whom the applicant is a client, and the advising bank of whom the beneficiary is a client. Almost all letters of credit are irrevocable, i.e., cannot be amended or canceled without prior agreement of the beneficiary, the issuing bank and the confirming bank, if any. In executing a transaction, letters of credit incorporate functions common to giros and Traveler’s cheques. Typically, the documents a beneficiary has to present in order to receive payment include a commercial invoice, bill of lading, and a document proving the shipment was insured against loss or damage in transit. However, the list and form of documents is open to imagination and negotiation and might contain requirements to present documents issued by a neutral third party evidencing the quality of the goods shipped, or their place of origin.

Accounting debt

In national accounting, debts are added according to those who are indebted. Household debt is the debt held by households. “National” or Public debt is the debt held by the various governmental institutions (federal government, states, cities …). Business debt is the debt held by businesses. Financial debt is the debt held by the financial sector (from one financial institution to another). Total debt is the sum of all those debts, excluding financial debt to prevent double accounting. These various types of debt can be computed in debt/GDP ratios. Those ratios help to assess the speed of variations in the indebtness and the size of the debt due. For example, the USA has a high consumer debt and a low public debt, while in eastern European countries the opposite tends to be true.

There are differences in the accounting of debt for private and public agents. If a private agent promises to pay something later, it has a debt, and this debt is enforceable by public agents. If a public body passes a law stating that it’ll pay something later (a kind of promise), it keeps the right to change the law later (and not to pay). This is why, for instance, the money governments promised to pay for retirements does not show up in the public debt assessment, whereas the money private companies promised to pay for retirements do.

Securitization

Main article: Securitization

Securitization occurs when a company groups together assets or receivables and sells them in units to the market through a trust. Any asset with a cashflow can be securitized. The cash flows from these receivables are used to pay the holders of these units. Companies often do this in order to remove these assets from their balance sheets and monetize an asset. Although these assets are “removed” from the balance sheet and are supposed to be the responsibility of the trust, that does not end the company’s involvement. Often the company maintains a special interest in the trust which is called an “interest only strip” or “first loss piece”. Any payments from the trust must be made to regular investors in precedence to this interest. This protects investors from a degree of risk, making the securitization more attractive. The aforementioned brings into question whether the assets are truly off-balance-sheet given the company’s exposure to losses on this interest.

Debt, inflation and the exchange rate

As noted below, debt is normally denominated in a particular monetary currency, and so changes in the valuation of that currency can change the effective size of the debt. This can happen due to inflation or deflation, so it can happen even though the borrower and the lender are using the same currency. Thus it is important to agree on standards of deferred payment in advance, so that a degree of fluctuation will also be agreed as acceptable. It is for instance common^{[citation needed]} to agree to “US dollar denominated” debt.

The form of debt involved in banking accounts for a large proportion of the money in most industrialized nations (see money and credit money for a discussion of this). There is therefore a relationship between inflation, deflation, the money supply, and debt. The store of value represented by the entire economy of the industrialized nation, and the state’s ability to levy tax on it, acts to the foreign holder of debt as a guarantee of repayment, since industrial goods are in high demand in many places worldwide.

Inflation indexed debt

Borrowing and repayment arrangements linked to inflation-indexed units of account are possible and are used in some countries. For example, the US government issues two types of inflation-indexed bonds, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) and I-bonds. These are one of the safest forms of investment available, since the only major source of risk — that of inflation — is eliminated. A number of other governments issue similar bonds, and some did so for many years before the US government.

In countries with consistently high inflation, ordinary borrowings at banks may also be inflation indexed.

Debt ratings, risk and cancellation

Risk free interest rate

Main article: risk-free interest rate

Lendings to stable financial entities such as large companies or governments are often termed “risk free” or “low risk” and made at a so-called “risk-free interest rate“. This is because the debt and interest are highly unlikely to be defaulted. A good example of such risk-free interest is a US Treasury security – it yields the minimum return available in economics, but investors have the comfort of the (almost) certain expectation that the US Treasury will not default on its debt instruments. A risk-free rate is also commonly used in setting floating interest rates, which are usually calculated as the risk-free interest rate plus a bonus to the creditor based on the creditworthiness of the debtor (in other words, the risk of him or her defaulting and the creditor losing the debt). In reality, no lending is truly risk free, but borrowers at the “risk free” rate are considered the least likely to default.

However, if the real value of a currency changes during the term of the debt, the purchasing power of the money repaid may vary considerably from that which was expected at the commencement of the loan. So from a practical investment point of view, there is still considerable risk attached to “risk free” or “low risk” lendings. The real value of the money may have changed due to inflation, or, in the case of a foreign investment, due to exchange rate fluctuations.

The Bank for International Settlements is an organization of central banks that sets rules to define how much capital banks have to hold against the loans they give out.

Ratings and creditworthiness

Specific bond debts owed by both governments and private corporations is rated by rating agencies, such as Moody’s, Fitch Ratings Inc., A. M. Best and Standard & Poor’s. The government or company itself will also be given its own separate rating. These agencies assess the ability of the debtor to honor his obligations and accordingly give him or her a credit rating. Moody’s uses the letters Aaa Aa A Baa Ba B Caa Ca C, where ratings Aa-Caa are qualified by numbers 1-3. Munich Re, for example, currently is rated Aa3 (as of 2004). S&P and other rating agencies have slightly different systems using capital letters and +/- qualifiers.

A change in ratings can strongly affect a company, since its cost of refinancing depends on its creditworthiness. Bonds below Baa/BBB (Moody’s/S&P) are considered junk- or high risk bonds. Their high risk of default (approximately 1.6% for Ba) is compensated by higher interest payments. Bad Debt is a loan that can not (partially or fully) be repaid by the debtor. The debtor is said to default on his debt. These types of debt are frequently repackaged and sold below face value. Buying junk bonds is seen as a risky but potentially profitable form of investment.

Cancellation

Short of bankruptcy, it is rare that debts are wholly or partially forgiven. Traditions in some cultures demand that this be done on a regular (often annual) basis, in order to prevent systemic inequities between groups in society, or anyone becoming a specialist in holding debt and coercing repayment. Under English law, when the creditor is deceived into forgoing payment, this is a crime: see Theft Act 1978.

International Third World debt has reached the scale that many economists are convinced that debt cancellation is the only way to restore global equity in relations with the developing nations.

Effects of debt

Debt allows people and organizations to do things that they would otherwise not be able, or allowed, to do. Commonly, people in industrialised nations use it to purchase houses, cars and many other things too expensive to buy with cash on hand. Companies also use debt in many ways to leverage the investment made in their assets, “leveraging” the return on their equity. This leverage, the proportion of debt to equity, is considered important in determining the riskiness of an investment; the more debt per equity, the riskier. For both companies and individuals, this increased risk can lead to poor results, as the cost of servicing the debt can grow beyond the ability to pay due to either external events (income loss) or internal difficulties (poor management of resources).

Excesses in debt accumulation have been blamed for exacerbating economic problems.  For example, prior to the beginning of the Great Depression debt/GDP ratio was very high. Economic agents were heavily indebted. This excess of debt, equivalent to excessive expectations on future returns, accompanied asset bubbles on the stock markets. When expectations corrected, deflation and a credit crunch followed. Deflation effectively made debt more expensive and, as Fisher explained, this reinforced deflation again, because, in order to reduce their debt level, economic agents reduced their consumption and investment. The reduction in demand reduced business activity and caused further unemployment. In a more direct sense, more bankruptcies also occurred due both to increased debt cost caused by deflation and the reduced demand.

It is possible for some organizations to enter into alternative types of borrowing and repayment arrangements which will not result in bankruptcy. For example, companies can sometimes convert debt that they owe into equity in themselves. In this case, the creditor hopes to regain something equivalent to the debt and interest in the form of dividends and capital gains of the borrower. The “repayments” are therefore proportional to what the borrower earns and so can not in themselves cause bankruptcy. Once debt is converted in this way, it is no longer known as debt.

Arguments against debt

Main article: Criticism of debt

Some argue against debt as an instrument and institution, on a personal, family, social, corporate and governmental level. Islam forbids lending with interest even today, while the Catholic church allowed it from 1822 onwards, and the Torah states that all debts should be erased every 7 years and every 50 years.

Debt will increase through time if it is not repaid faster than it grows through interest. This effect may be termed usury, while the term “usury” in other contexts refers only to an excessive rate of interest, in excess of a reasonable profit for the risk accepted.

In international legal thought, Odious debt is debt that is incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the interest of the state. Such debts are thus considered by this doctrine to be personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the state.

In an economy with high interest rates, debt will be more costly to a business than more flexible dividends on equity investment. It may be easier for a struggling business to be financed through equity investment as it may be possible to avoid paying a dividend if times are hard.

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

Out-of court restructurings, also known as workouts, are increasingly becoming a global reality. A debt restructuring is usually less expensive and a preferable alternative to bankruptcy. The main costs associated with a business debt restructuring are the time and effort to negotiate with bankers, creditors, vendors and tax authorities. Debt restructurings typically involve a reduction of debt and an extension of payment terms.

In the United States, small business bankruptcy filings cost at least $50,000 in legal and court fees, and filing costs in excess of $100,000 are common. By some measures, only 20% of firms survive Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings.

Debt-for-Equity Swaps

In a debt-for-equity swap, a company’s creditors generally agree to cancel some or all of the debt in exchange for equity in the company.

Debt for equity deals often occur when large companies run into serious financial trouble, and often result in these companies being taken over by their principal creditors. This is because both the debt and the remaining assets in these companies are so large that there is no advantage for the creditors to drive the company into bankruptcy. Instead the creditors prefer to take control of the business as a going concern. As a consequence, the original shareholders’ stake in the company is generally significantly diluted in these deals and may be entirely eliminated, as is typical in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Debt-for-equity swaps and the subprime mortgage crisis

Further information: Subprime mortgage crisis solutions debate

Debt-for-equity swaps have also been discussed as a way of dealing with sub-prime mortgages. A householder unable to service his debt on a $180k mortgage for example, may by agreement with his bank have the value of the mortgage reduced (say to $135k or 90% of the house’s current value), in return for which the bank will receive 50% of the amount by which any resale value, when the house is resold, exceeds $135k.

Bondholder haircuts

A debt-for-equity swap may also be called a “bondholder haircut.” Bondholder haircuts at large banks were advocated as a potential solution for the subprime mortgage crisis by prominent economists:

Economist Joseph Stiglitz testified that bank bailouts “…are really bailouts not of the enterprises but of the shareholders and especially bondholders. There is no reason that American taxpayers should be doing this.” He wrote that reducing bank debt levels by converting debt into equity will increase confidence in the financial system. He believes that addressing bank solvency in this way would help address credit market liquidity issues.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs has also argued for bondholder haircuts: “The cheaper and more equitable way would be to make shareholders and bank bondholders take the hit rather than the taxpayer. The Fed and other bank regulators would insist that bad loans be written down on the books. Bondholders would take haircuts, but these losses are already priced into deeply discounted bond prices.”

If the key issue is bank solvency, converting debt to equity via bondholder haircuts presents an elegant solution to the problem. Not only is debt reduced along with interest payments, but equity is simultaneously increased. Investors can then have more confidence that the bank (and financial system more broadly) is solvent, helping unfreeze credit markets. Taxpayers do not have to contribute dollars and the government may be able to just provide guarantees in the short-term to further support confidence in the recapitalized institution.

For example, one of the largest U.S. banks owed its bondholders $267 billion per its 2008 annual report. A 20% haircut would reduce this debt by about $54 billion, creating an equal amount of equity in the process, thereby recapitalizing the bank significantly.

Informal Debt Repayment Agreements

Most defendants who cannot pay the enforcement officer in full at once enter into negotiations with the officer to pay by installments. This process is informal but cheaper and quicker than an application to the court.

Payment by this method relies on the co-operation of the creditor and the enforcement officer. It is therefore important not to offer more than you can afford or to fall behind with the payments you agree. If you do fall behind with the payments and the enforcement officer has seized goods, they may remove them to the sale room for auction.

Debt restructuring in individual jurisdictions

Switzerland

Main article: Insolvency law of Switzerland

Under Swiss law, debt restructuring may occur out of court, or through a court-mediated debt restructuring agreement that may provide for a partial waiver of debts, or for a liquidation of the debtor’s assets by the creditors.

United Kingdom

Not uncommon in Western states, the majority of debt restructuring within the United Kingdom, certainly in the commercial sector are undertaken on a collaborative basis between the borrower and the creditors. Should this be unsatisfactory in the first instance, the court may be asked to mediate and administrators appointed.

Corporate Restructuring As the incidence of corporate failures has increased in part due to the current economic climate, so a more ‘standard’ approach to restructuring has developed. Although every case has unique characteristics, the process of restructuring follows a number of important phases.

Initially, a downturn in trading performance is identified typically through management accounts or as a result of revised management projections. This triggers a gathering of lenders (and perhaps other stakeholders), in anticipation of a breach of financial covenants or a crisis of liquidity.

The lending group (typically comprising corporate finance divisions of banks) will normally commission a review of the business and its financial position and outlook. This will normally be undertaken by a corporate advisory group such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers or Deloitte. This will form the basis of any restructuring of facilities.

The lending group will typically appoint a Corporate Restructuring Officer or CRO, to assist management in the turnaround of the business, and embracing the recommendations presented by the banking group and the corporate advisory report.

Debit card: A debit card (also known as a bank card or check card) is a plastic card that provides an alternative payment method to cash when making purchases. Functionally, it can be called an electronic cheque, as the funds are withdrawn directly from either the bank account, or from the remaining balance on the card. In some cases, the cards are designed exclusively for use on the Internet, and so there is no physical card.

The use of debit cards has become widespread in many countries and has overtaken the cheque, and in some instances cash transactions by volume. Like credit cards, debit cards are used widely for telephone and Internet purchases, and unlike credit cards the funds are transferred from the bearer’s bank account instead of having the bearer to pay back on a later date.

Debit cards can also allow for instant withdrawal of cash, acting as the ATM card for withdrawing cash and as a cheque guarantee card. Merchants can also offer “cashback”/”cashout” facilities to customers, where a customer can withdraw cash along with their purchase.

Credit or Debit?

For consumers, the difference between a “debit card” and a “credit card” is that the debit card deducts the balance from a deposit account, like a checking account, whereas the credit card allows the consumer to spend money on credit to the issuing bank. In other words, a debit card uses the money you have and a credit card uses the money you don’t have. “Debit cards” which are linked directly to a checking account are sometimes dual-purpose, so that they can be used as a credit card, and can be charged by merchants using the traditional credit networks. A merchant will ask for “credit or debit?” if the card is a combined credit+debit card. If the payee chooses “credit”, the credit balance will be debited the amount of the purchase which is then withdrawn at a later date; if the payee chooses “debit”, the bank account balance will be debited the amount of the purchase and the money will be withdrawn from the bank account immediately.

The “debit” networks usually require that a personal identification number (PIN) be supplied. The “credit” networks typically require that purchases be made in person and often allow cards to be charged with only a signature, and/or picture ID. However, most merchant agreements in the United States forbid picture ID as a requirement to use a Credit Card.

Types of debit card

re are currently three ways that debit card transactions are processed: online debit (also known as PIN debit), offline debit (also known as signature debit) and Electronic Purse Card.

Although many debit cards are of the Visa or MasterCard brand, there are many other types of debit card, each accepted only within a particular country or region, for example Switch (now: Maestro) and Solo in the United Kingdom, Interac in Canada, Carte Bleue in France, Laser in Ireland, “EC electronic cash” (formerlyEurocheque) in Germany and EFTPOS cards in Australia and New Zealand. The need for cross-border compatibility and the advent of the euro recently led to many of these card networks (such as Switzerland‘s “EC direkt”, Austria‘s “Bankomatkasse” and Switch in the United Kingdom) being re-branded with the internationally recognised Maestro logo, which is part of the MasterCard brand. Some debit cards are dual branded with the logo of the (former) national card as well as Maestro (e.g. EC cards in Germany, Laser cards in Ireland, Switch and Solo in the UK, Pinpas cards in the Netherlands, Bancontact cards in Belgium, etc.). The use of a debit card system allows operators to package their product more effectively while monitoring customer spending. An example of one of these systems is ECS by Embed International.

Online Debit Card

Online debit cards require electronic authorization of every transaction and the debits are reflected in the user’s account immediately. The transaction may be additionally secured with the personal identification number (PIN) authentication system and some online cards require such authentication for every transaction, essentially becoming enhanced automatic teller machine (ATM) cards. One difficulty in using online debit cards is the necessity of an electronic authorization device at the point of sale (POS) and sometimes also a separate PINpad to enter the PIN, although this is becoming commonplace for all card transactions in many countries. Overall, the online debit card is generally viewed as superior to the offline debit card because of its more secure authentication system and live status, which alleviates problems with processing lag on transactions that may have been forgotten or not authorized by the owner of the card. Banks in some countries, such as Canada and Brazil, only issue online debit cards (santu)

Offline Debit Card

Offline debit cards have the logos of major credit cards (e.g. Visa or MasterCard) or major debit cards (e.g. Maestro in the United Kingdom and other countries, but not the United States) and are used at the point of sale like a credit card (with payer’s signature). This type of debit card may be subject to a daily limit, and/or a maximum limit equal to the current/checking account balance from which it draws funds. Transactions conducted with offline debit cards require 2–3 days to be reflected on users’ account balances. In some countries and with some banks and merchant service organizations, a “credit” or offline debit transaction is without cost to the purchaser beyond the face value of the transaction, while a small fee may be charged for a “debit” or online debit transaction (although it is often absorbed by the retailer). Other differences are that online debit purchasers may opt to withdraw cash in addition to the amount of the debit purchase (if the merchant supports that functionality); also, from the merchant’s standpoint, the merchant pays lower fees on online debit transaction as compared to “credit” (offline) debit transaction

Prepaid Debit Card

Prepaid debit cards, also called reloadable debit cards or reloadable prepaid cards, are often used for recurring payments. ^[3] The payer loads funds to the cardholder’s card account. Particularly for US-based companies with a large number of payment recipients abroad, prepaid debit cards allow the delivery of international payments without the delays and fees associated with international checks and bank transfers.  Web-based services such as stock photography websites (istockphoto), outsourced services (oDesk), and affiliate networks (MediaWhiz) have all started offering prepaid debit cards for their contributors/freelancers/vendo

Electronic Purse Card

Smart-card-based electronic purse systems (in which value is stored on the card chip, not in an externally recorded account, so that machines accepting the card need no network connectivity) are in use throughout Europe since the mid-1990s, most notably in Germany (Geldkarte), Austria (Quick), and Belgium. In Austria and Germany, all current bank cards now include electronic purses.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Debit and check cards, as they have become widespread, have revealed numerous advantages and disadvantages to the consumer and retailer alike. Advantages are as follows (most of them applying only to a some countries, but the countries to which they apply are unspecified):

• A consumer who is not credit worthy and may find it difficult or impossible to obtain a credit card can more easily obtain a debit card, allowing him/her to make plastic transactions.
• Use of a debit card is limited to the existing funds in the account to which it is linked (except cases of offline payments), thereby preventing the consumer from racking up debt as a result of its use, or being charged interest, late fees, or fees exclusive to credit cards.
• For most transactions, a check card can be used to avoid check writing altogether. Check cards debit funds from the user’s account on the spot, thereby finalizing the transaction at the time of purchase, and bypassing the requirement to pay a credit card bill at a later date, or to write an insecure check containing the account holder’s personal information.
• Like credit cards, debit cards are accepted by merchants with less identification and scrutiny than personal checks, thereby making transactions quicker and less intrusive. Unlike personal checks, merchants generally do not believe that a payment via a debit card may be later dishonored.
• Unlike a credit card, which charges higher fees and interest rates when a cash advance is obtained, a debit card may be used to obtain cash from an ATM or a PIN-based transaction at no extra charge, other than a foreign ATM fee.

The Debit card has many disadvantages as opposed to cash or credit:

• Some banks are now charging over-limit fees or non-sufficient funds fees based upon pre-authorizations, and even attempted but refused transactions by the merchant (some of which may not even be known by the client).
• Many merchants mistakenly believe that amounts owed can be “taken” from a customer’s account after a debit card (or number) has been presented, without agreement as to date, payee name, amount and currency, thus causing penalty fees for overdrafts, over-the-limit, amounts not available causing further rejections or overdrafts, and rejected transactions by some banks.
• In some countries debit cards offer lower levels of security protection than credit cards. Theft of the users PIN using skimming devices can be accomplished much easier with a PIN input than with a signature-based credit transaction. However, theft of users’ PIN codes using skimming devices can be equally easily accomplished with a debit transaction PIN input, as with a credit transaction PIN input, and theft using a signature-based credit transaction is equally easy as theft using a signature-based debit transaction.
• In many places, laws protect the consumer from fraud a lot less than with a credit card. While the holder of a credit card is legally responsible for only a minimal amount of a fraudulent transaction made with a credit card, which is often waived by the bank, the consumer may be held liable for hundreds of dollars, or even the entire value of fraudulent debit transactions. The consumer also has a much shorter time (usually just two days) to report such fraud to the bank in order to be eligible for such a waiver with a debit card, whereas with a credit card, this time may be up to 60 days. A thief who obtains or clones a debit card along with its PIN may be able to clean out the consumer’s bank account, and the consumer will have no recourse.
• In the UK and Ireland, among other countries, a consumer who purchases goods or services with a credit card can pursue the credit card issuer if the goods or services are not delivered or are unmerchantable. While they must generally exhaust the process provided by the retailer first, this is not necessary if the retailer has gone out of business. This protection is not provided by legislation when using a debit card but may be offered to a limited extent as a benefit provided by the card network, e.g. Visa debit cards.
• When a transaction is made using a credit card, the bank’s money is being spent, and therefore, the bank has a vested interest in claiming its money where there is fraud or a dispute. The bank may fight to void the charges of a consumer who is dissatisfied with a purchase, or who has otherwise been treated unfairly by the merchant. But when a debit purchase is made, the consumer has spent his/her own money, and the bank has little if any motivation to collect the funds.
• In some countries, and for certain types of purchases, such as gasoline (via a pay at the pump system), lodging, or car rental, the bank may place a hold on funds much greater than the actual purchase for a fixed period of time.  However, this isn’t the case in other countries, such as Sweden. Until the hold is released, any other transactions presented to the account, including checks, may be dishonored, or may be paid at the expense of an overdraft fee if the account lacks any additional funds to pay those items.
• While debit cards bearing the logo of a major credit card are accepted for virtually all transactions where an equivalent credit card is taken, a major exception in some countries is at car rental facilities. In some countries car rental agencies require an actual credit card to be used, or at the very least, will verify the creditworthiness of the renter using a debit card. In these unspecified countries, these companies will deny a rental to anyone who does not fit the requirements, and such a credit check may actually hurt one’s credit score, as long as there is such a thing as a credit score in the country of purchase and/or the country of residence of the customer.

Consumer Protection

Consumer protections vary, depending on the network used. Visa and MasterCard, for instance, prohibit minimum and maximum purchase sizes, surcharges, and arbitrary security procedures on the part of merchants. Merchants are usually charged higher transaction fees for credit transactions, since debit network transactions are less likely to be fraudulent. This may lead them to “steer” customers to debit transactions. Consumers disputing charges may find it easier to do so with a credit card, since the money will not immediately leave their control. Fraudulent charges on a debit card can also cause problems with a checking account because the money is withdrawn immediately and may thus result in an overdraft or bounced checks. In some cases debit card-issuing banks will promptly refund any disputed charges until the matter can be settled, and in some jurisdictions the consumer liability for unauthorized charges is the same for both debit and credit cards.

In some countries, like India and Sweden, the consumer protection is the same regardless of the network used. Some banks set minimum and maximum purchase sizes, mostly for online-only cards. However, this has nothing to do with the card networks, but rather with the bank’s judgement of the person’s age and credit records. Any fees that the customers have to pay to the bank are the same regardless of whether the transaction is conducted as a credit or as a debit transaction, so there is no advantage for the customers to choose one transaction mode over another. Shops may add surcharges to the price of the goods or services in accordance with laws allowing them to do so. Banks consider the purchases as having been made at the moment when the card was swiped, regardless of when the purchase settlement was made. Regardless of which transaction type was used, the purchase may result in an overdraft because the money is considered to have left the account at the moment of the card swiping.

Financial access

Debit cards and secured credit cards are popular among college students who have not yet established a credit history. Debit cards may also be used by expatriated workers to send money home to their families holding an affiliated debit card.

Issues with deferred posting of offline debit

To the consumer, a debit transaction is perceived as occurring in real-time; i.e. the money is withdrawn from their account immediately following the authorization request from the merchant, which in many countries, is the case when making an online debit purchase. However, when a purchase is made using the “credit” (offline debit) option, the transaction merely places an authorization hold on the customer’s account; funds are not actually withdrawn until the transaction is reconciled and hard-posted to the customer’s account, usually a few days later. However, the previous sentence applies to all kinds of transaction types, at least when using a card issued by a European bank. This is in contrast to a typical credit card transaction; though it can also have a lag time of a few days before the transaction is posted to the account, it can be many days to a month or more before the consumer makes repayment with actual money.

Because of this, in the case of a benign or malicious error by the merchant or bank, a debit transaction may cause more serious problems (e.g. money not accessible; overdrawn account) than in the case of a credit card transaction (e.g. credit not accessible; over credit limit). This is especially true in the United States, where writing “hot checks” is a crime in every state, but exceeding your credit limit is not.

Internet purchases

Debit cards may also be used on the Internet. Internet transactions may be conducted in either online or offline mode, although shops accepting online-only cards are rare in some countries (such as Sweden), while they are common in other countries (such as the Netherlands). For a comparison, PayPal offers the customer to use an online-only Maestro card if the customer enters a Dutch address of residence, but not if the same customer enters a Swedish address of residence.

Internet purchases may be conducted in either online or offline mode, and just as in the case where you use your card in a shop, it is (at least in most countries) impossible to tell whether the transaction was conducted in online or offline mode (unless an online-only card was used, in which case you know that it was conducted in online mode), since the mode isn’t mentioned on any receipt or similar. Internet purchases use neither a PIN code nor a signature for identification. Transactions may be conducted in either credit or debit mode (which is sometimes, but not always, indicated on the receipt), and this has nothing to do with whether the transaction was conducted on online or offline mode, since both credit and debit transactions may be conducted in both modes.

Debit cards around the world

In some countries, banks tend to levy a small fee for each debit card transaction. In some countries (e.g. the UK) the merchants bear all the costs and customers are not charged. There are many people who routinely use debit cards for all transactions, no matter how small. Some (small) retailers refuse to accept debit cards for small transactions, where paying the transaction fee would absorb the profit margin on the sale, making the transaction uneconomic for the retailer.

Australia

Debit cards in Australia are called different names depending on the issuing bank: Commonwealth Bank of Australia: Keycard; Westpac Banking Corporation: Handycard; National Australia Bank: FlexiCard;ANZ Bank: Access card; Bendigo Bank: Cashcard.

EFTPOS is very popular in Australia and has been operating there since the 1980s. EFTPOS-enabled cards are accepted at almost all swipe terminals able to accept credit cards, regardless of the bank that issued the card, including Maestro cards issued by foreign banks, with most businesses accepting them, with 450,000 Point Of Sale terminals.

EFTPOS cards can also be used to deposit and withdraw cash over the counter at Australia Post outlets participating in giroPost, just as if the transaction was conducted at a bank branch, even if the bank branch is closed. Electronic transactions in Australia are generally processed via the Telstra Argent and Optus Transact Plus network – which has recently superseded the old Transcend network in the last few years. Most early keycards were only usable for EFTPOS and at ATM or bank branches, whilst the new debit card system works in the same ways a credit card, except it will only use funds in the specified bank account. This means that, among other advantages, the new system is suitable for electronic purchases without a delay of 2 to 4 days for bank-to-bank money transfers.

Australia operates both electronic credit card transaction authorization and traditional EFTPOS debit card authorization systems, the difference between the two being that EFTPOS transactions are authorized by a personal identification number (PIN) while credit card transactions are usually authorized by the printing and signing of a receipt. If the user fails to enter the correct pin 3 times, the consequences range from the card being locked out and requiring a phone call or trip to the branch to reactivate with a new PIN, the card being cut up by the merchant, or in the case of an ATM, being kept inside the machine, both of which require a new card to be ordered.

Generally credit card transaction costs are borne by the merchant with no fee applied to the end user while EFTPOS transactions cost the consumer an applicable withdrawal fee charged by their bank.

The introduction of Visa and MasterCard debit cards along with regulation in the settlement fees charged by the operators of both EFTPOS and credit cards by the Reserve Bank has seen a continuation in the increasing ubiquity of credit card use among Australians and a general decline in the profile of EFTPOS. However, the regulation of settlement fees also removed the ability of banks, who typically provide merchant services to retailers on behalf of Visa, MasterCard or Bankcard, from stopping those retailers charging extra fees to take payment by credit card instead of cash or EFTPOS. Though only a few operators with strong market power have done so, the passing on of fees charged for credit card transactions may result in an increased use of EFTPOS.

Canada

Main article: Interac

Canada has a nation-wide EFTPOS system, called Interac Direct Payment. Since being introduced in 1994, IDP has become the most popular payment method in the country. Previously, debit cards have been in used for ABM usage since the early 1980s. In the early 1990s, pilot projects were conducted among Canada’s six largest banks to gauge security, accuracy and feasibility of the Interac system. Slowly in the later half of the 1990s, it was estimated that approximately 50% of retailers offered Interac as a source of payment. Retailers, many small transaction retailers like coffee shops, resisted offering IDP to promote faster service. In 2009, 99% of retailers offer IDP as an alternative payment form.

In Canada, the debit card is sometimes referred to as a “bank card”. It is a client card issued by a bank that provides access to funds and other bank account transactions, such as transferring funds, checking balances, paying bills, etc., as well as point of purchase transactions connected on the Interac network. Since its national launch in 1994, Interac Direct Payment has become so widespread that, as of 2001, more transactions in Canada were completed using debit cards than cash. This popularity may be partially attributable to two main factors: the convenience of not having to carry cash, and the availability of automated bank machines (ABMs) and Direct Payment merchants on the network.

Canadians, in fact, rank as the undisputed world leaders in debit card use, making 71.7 debit transactions per person in 2001, which is significantly more than consumers in the next closest country (France, at 60.3). The average value of a debit transaction in Canada (US$27 in 2001) was the lowest in an 11-country comparison, with Japan (US$405) and Switzerland (US$100) markedly standing out.93 Thus, compared to consumers in other countries, Canadians appear to be using their debit cards more often, even for frequent low-cost transactions.

Debit cards may be considered similar to stored-value cards in that they represent a finite amount of money owed by the card issuer to the holder. They are different in that stored-value cards are generally anonymous and are only usable at the issuer, while debit cards are generally associated with an individual’s bank account and can be used anywhere on the Interac network.

In Canada, the bank cards can only be used at POS and ABMs. Select financial institutions allow their clients to use their debit cards in the United States on the NYCE network.

Consumer protection in Canada

Consumers in Canada are protected under a voluntary code* entered into by all providers of debit card services, The Canadian Code of Practice for Consumer Debit Card Services (sometimes called the “Debit Card Code”). Adherence to the Code is overseen by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), which investigates consumer complaints.

According to the FCAC website, revisions to the Code that came into effect in 2005 put the onus on the financial institution to prove that a consumer was responsible for a disputed transaction, and also place a limit on the number of days that an account can be frozen during the financial institution’s investigation of a transaction.

Chile

Chile has an EFTPOS system called Redcompra (Purchase Network) which is currently used in at least 23,000 establishments throughout the country. Goods may be purchased using this system at most supermarkets, retail stores, pubs and restaurants in major urban centers.

Colombia

Colombia has a system called Redeban-Multicolor and Credibanco Visa which are currently used in at least 23,000 establishments throughout the country. Goods may be purchased using this system at most supermarkets, retail stores, pubs and restaurants in major urban centers. Colombian debit cards are Maestro (pin), Visa Electron (pin), Visa Debit (as Credit) and MasterCard-Debit (as Credit).

Denmark

The Danish debit card Dankort was introduced on 1 September 1983, and despite the initial transactions being paper-based, the Dankort quickly won widespread acceptance in Denmark. By 1985 the firstEFTPOS terminals were introduced, and 1985 was also the year when the number of Dankort transactions first exceeded 1 million.

Miscellaneous facts & numbers

• In 2007 PBS, the Danish operator of the Dankort system, processed a total of 737 million Dankort transactions^[14]. Of these, 4.5 million just on a single day, 21 December. This remains the current record.
• At the end of 2007, there were 3,9 million Dankort in existence.
• More than 80,000 Danish shops have a Dankort terminal. Another 11,000 internet shops also accept the Dankort.

France

Banks in France charge annual fees for debit cards (despite card payments being very cost efficient for the banks), yet they do not charge personal customers for checkbooks or processing checks (despite checks being very costly for the banks). This imbalance most probably dates from the unilateral introduction in France of Chip and PIN debit cards in the early 1990s, when the cost of this technology was much higher than it is now. Credit cards of the type found in the United Kingdom and United States are unusual in France and the closest equivalent is the deferred debit card, which operates like a normal debit card, except that all purchase transactions are postponed until the end of the month, thereby giving the customer between 1 and 31 days of interest-free credit. The annual fee for a deferred debit card is around €10 more than for one with immediate debit. Most France debit cards are branded with the Carte Bleue logo, which assures acceptance throughout France. Most card holders choose to pay around €5 more in their annual fee to additionally have a Visa or a MasterCard logo on their Carte Bleue, so that the card is accepted internationally. A Carte Bleue without a Visa or a MasterCard logo is often known as a “Carte BleueNationale” and a Carte Bleue with a Visa or a MasterCard logo is known as a “Carte Bleue Internationale”, or more frequently, simply called a “Visa” or “MasterCard”. Many smaller merchants in France refuse to accept debit cards for transactions under €15 (equivalent to 100 French Francs) because of the minimum fee charged by merchants’ banks per transaction. Merchants in France do not differentiate between debit and credit cards, and so both have equal acceptance. However, Visa’s and MasterCard’s regulations prohibit merchants from setting minimum charge amounts. American Express’s policy is to discourage any merchant practices that create a “barrier to acceptance” and setting minimum charge limits is such a barrier. Amex does prohibit “discrimination” against the Amex card, which means they cannot have minimum charge for Amex but not for Visa and MasterCard but they cannot have a minimum charge for Visa and MasterCard because Visa and MasterCard prohibit this.

Germany

Debit cards have enjoyed wide acceptance in Germany for years. Facilities already existed before EFTPOS became popular with the Eurocheque card, an authorization system initially developed for paperchecks where, in addition to signing the actual check, customers also needed to show the card alongside the check as a security measure. Those cards could also be used at ATM Terminals and for card-basedelectronic funds transfer (called Girocard). These are now the only functions of such cards: the Eurocheque system (along with the brand) was abandoned in 2002 during the transition from the Deutsche Mark to the Euro. As of 2005, most stores and petrol outlets have EFTPOS facilities. Processing fees are paid by the businesses, which leads to some business owners refusing debit card payments for sales totaling less than a certain amount, usually 5 or 10 euro.

To avoid the processing fees, many businesses resorted to using direct debit, which is then called electronic direct debit (German: Elektronisches Lastschriftverfahren, abbr. ELV). The point-of-sale terminal reads the name and account number from the card but instead of handling the transaction through the ec network it simply prints a form, which the customer signs to authorize the debit note. However, this method also avoids any verification or payment guarantee provided by the network. Further, customers can return debit notes by notifying their bank without giving a reason. This means that the beneficiary bears the risk of fraud and illiquidity. Some business mitigate the risk by consulting a proprietary blacklist or by switching to electronic cash for higher transaction amounts.

Around 2000, an Electronic Purse Card was introduced, dubbed Geldkarte (“money card”). It makes use of the smart card chip on the front of the standard issue debit card. This chip can be charged with up to 200 euro, and is advertised as a means of making medium to very small payments, even down to several euros or cent payments. The key factor here is that no processing fees are deducted by banks. It did not gain the popularity its inventors had hoped for. However, this could change as this chip is now used as means of age verification at cigarette vending machines, which has been mandatory since January 2007. Furthermore, some payment discounts are being offered (e.g. a 10% reduction for public transport fares) when paying with “Geldkarte”. The “Geldkarte” payment lacks all security measures, since it does not require the user to enter a PIN or sign a sales slip: the loss of a “Geldkarte” is similar to the loss of a wallet or purse – anyone who finds it can then use their find to pay for their own purchases.

Hong Kong

Main article: Octopus card

The Octopus card, a stored value contactless smart card, was initially launched in September 1997 to collect fares for the city’s mass transit system. Since then, the Octopus system has become widely used for payments for virtually all public transport in Hong Kong, as well as convenience stores, fast food restaurants, parking meters, car parks, service stations and vending machines. Over 18 million Octopus cards are in circulation, and 95% of Hong Kong people aged 16-65 use Octopus.

Hungary

In Hungary debit cards are far more common and popular than credit cards. Many Hungarians even refer to their debit card (“betéti kártya”) mistakenly using the word for credit card (“hitelkártya”).

India

The debit card has limited popularity in India as the merchant is charged for each transaction. The debit card therefore is mostly used for ATM transactions. Most of the banks issue VISA debit cards, while some banks (like SBI) issue Maestro cards. The debit card transactions are routed through the VISA or MasterCard networks rather than directly via the issuing bank.

Italy

Debit cards are quite popular in Italy. There are both classic and prepaid cards. The main classic debit card in Italy is PagoBancomat: this kind of card is issued by Italian banks, often with a credit card (so you get a dual mode card). It allows access to the owner’s bank account funds and it is widely accepted in most shops, although on the Internet it is allowed only the credit card mode. The major debit prepayed card is issued by Poste Italiane S.p.A., is called Postepay and runs on the Visa Electron circuit. It can be used on Poste Italiane’s ATMs (Postamat) and on Visa Electron-compatible bank ATMs all over the world. It has no fees when used on the Internet and in POS-based transactions. Other cards are issued by other companies, such as Vodafone CashCard, Banca di Milano’s Carta Jeans and Carta Moneta Online.

Japan

In Japan people usually use their cash cards (???????? kyasshu k?do^?), originally intended only for use with cash machines, as debit cards. The debit functionality of these cards is usually referred to as J-Debit (??????? Jeidebitto^?), and only cash cards from certain banks can be used. A cash card has the same size as a VISA/MasterCard. As identification, the user will have to enter his or her four-digit PIN when paying. J-Debit was started in Japan on March 6, 2000.

Suruga Bank began service of Japan’s first Visa Debit in 2006. Ebank will start service of Visa Debit by the end of 2007.

Kuwait

In Kuwait, all banks provide a debit card to their account holders. This card is branded as KNET, which is the central switch in Kuwait. KNET card transactions are free for both customer and the merchant and therefore KNET debit cards are used for low valued transactions as well. KNET cards are mostly co-branded as Maestro or Visa Electron which makes it possible to use the same card outside Kuwait on any terminal supporting these payment schemes.

The Netherlands

In the Netherlands using EFTPOS is known as pinnen (pinning), a term derived from the use of a Personal Identification Number. PINs are also used for ATM transactions, and the term is used interchangeably by many people, although it was introduced as a marketing brand for EFTPOS. The system was launched in 1987, and in 2006 there were 166,375 terminals throughout the country, including mobile terminals used by delivery services and on markets. All banks offer a debit card suitable for EFTPOS with current accounts.

PIN transactions are usually free to the customer, but the retailer is charged per-transaction and monthly fees. Equens, an association with all major banks as its members, runs the system, and until August 2005 also charged for it. Responding to allegations of monopoly abuse, it has handed over contractual responsibilities to its member banks, who now offer competing contracts. Interpay, a legal predecessor of Equens, was fined EUR 47 million in 2004, but the fine was later dropped, and a related fine for banks was lowered from EUR 17 to €14 million. Per-transaction fees are between 5-10 eurocents, depending on volume.

Credit cards use in the Netherlands is very low, and most credit cards cannot be used with EFTPOS, or charge very high fees to the customer. Debit cards can often, though not always, be used in the entire EU for EFTPOS. Most debit cards are Maestro cards.

Electronic Purse Cards (called Chipknip) were introduced in 1996, but have never become very popular.

New Zealand

The EFTPOS (electronic fund transfer at point of sale) system is highly popular in New Zealand, with more debit card terminals per head of population than any other country, and being used for about 60% of all retail transactions.  According to the largest EFTPOS network provider, “New Zealanders use EFTPOS twice as much as any other country.”

It is not unusual for a New Zealander to have more than one EFTPOS card and for banks to offer fixed monthly fees for unlimited (100 or greater at least) EFTPOS transactions during that month. During peak spending times, e.g. around Christmas, or during extreme fluctuations, the New Zealand EFTPOS system can become overloaded and ‘crash’ due to the sheer number of transactions being processed.

Virtually all retail outlets have EFTPOS terminals, particularly supermarkets, “dairies” (convenience stores), service stations, and bars. Increasingly Taxi operators, businesses operating from stands at events and even pizza delivery people have mobile EFTPOS terminals.

New Zealanders use EFTPOS for both small and large transactions. It would not be unusual for a New Zealander to use an EFTPOS card to pay for an amount as small as 50 cents NZD. Because EFTPOS is such an integral part of spending in New Zealand, rare network failures cause tremendous delays, inconvenience and lost income to businesses who must resort to manual “zip-zap” swipe machines to process EFTPOS transactions until the network returns to service.  Typically New Zealand merchants do not pay a fee per transaction as is the case in Australia and other countries. Transaction fees are typically borne by the customer, and retailers pay a fixed monthly equipment rental fee. As bank accounts for students and children under 18 years old typically attract low or no electronic transaction fees, the use of EFTPOS by the younger generations has become virtually ubiquitous. In recent times, major banks have started to offer accounts with no EFTPOS transaction fees.

The Bank of New Zealand introduced EFTPOS to New Zealand in 1985 through a pilot scheme with petrol stations.

EFTPOS is operated through two primary networks. One, EFTPOS NZ, owned by ANZ, and a second operated by Electronic Transaction Services Limited which is owned by ASB Bank, Westpac, and the Bank of New Zealand. The ETSL network processes approximately 80% of all EFTPOS transactions in New Zealand on their Paymark EFTPOS network and has over 60,000 points of sale.

During July 2006 the five billionth EFTPOS payment flowed across the ETSL/Paymark EFTPOS network since the electronic form of payment was introduced in New Zealand in 1989.^[23]

On 9 May 2007, Payment Express was certified as the first IP / broadband certified terminal allowing EFTPOS transactions to be transmitted securely over the Internet.

However security issues regarding EFTPOS payments over the public Internet and the costs associated with legacy (dial up) terminal replacement has hampered the growth of the IP medium in New Zealand. One company, Merchant IP Services (MIPS) offers an alternative IP-POS solution allowing for the secure IP connection of most legacy (dial-up) terminals without the need for terminal replacement. The PCI compliant and Paymark certified MIPS IP-POS system consists of a MIPS WebNAC connected to the legacy EFTPOS terminal converting dial up transaction data to IP before transporting the payment securely to the bank switch.

In March 2008 ETSL Paymark partnered with virtual wallet payment system pago to create New Zealands first debit or “stored value” system for online shopping.

Philippines

In the Philippines, all three national ATM network consortia offer proprietary PIN debit. This was first offered by Express Payment System in 1987, followed by Megalink with Paylink in 1993 then BancNet with the Point-of-Sale in 1994.

Express Payment System or EPS was the pioneer provider, having launched the service in 1987 on behalf of the Bank of the Philippine Islands. The EPS service has subsequently been extended in late 2005 to include the other Expressnet members: Banco de Oro and Land Bank of the Philippines. They currently operate 10,000 terminals for their cardholders.

Megalink launched Paylink EFTPOS system in 1993. Terminal services are provided by Equitable Card Network on behalf of the consortium. Service is available in 2,000 terminals, mostly in Metro Manila.

BancNet introduced their Point of sale System in 1994 as the first consortium-operated EFTPOS service in the country. The service is available in over 1,400 locations throughout the Philippines, including second and third-class municipalities. In 2005, BancNet signed a Memorandum of Agreement to serve as the local gateway for China UnionPay, the sole ATM switch in the People’s Republic of China. This will allow the estimated 1.0 billion Chinese ATM cardholders to use the BancNet ATMs and the EFTPOS in all SM Supermalls.

Visa Debit cards are issued by Union Bank of the Philippines (e-Wallet & eon), Chinatrust, Equicom Savings Bank (Key Card & Cash Card) & Sterling Bank of Asia (VISA ShopNPay prepaid and debit cards). Union Bank of the Philippines cards & Sterling Bank of Asia EMV cards which can also be used for internet purchases. Sterling Bank of Asia has released its first line of prepaid and debit Visa cards with EMVchip. MasterCard debit cards, also known as MasterCard PayPass cards are issued by Banco de Oro. MasterCard Electronic cards are issued by BPI (Express Cash) and Security Bank (CashLink Plus). All VISA and MasterCard based debit cards in the Philippines are non-embossed and are marked either for “Electronic Use Only” (VISA/MasterCard) or “Valid only where MasterCard Electronic is Accepted” (MasterCard Electronic) You can all so brake it

Poland

In Poland, local debit cards, such as PolCard, have become largely substituted with international ones, such as Visa, MasterCard, or the unembossed Visa Electron or Maestro. Most banks in Poland block Internet and MOTO transactions with unembossed cards, requiring the customer to buy an embossed card or a card for Internet/MOTO transactions only^{[citation needed]}. The number of banks which do not block MOTO transactions on unembossed cards has recently started to increase.

Russia

With the exception of VISA and Master Card, there are some local payment system based in general on Smart Card technology.

• Sbercard. This payment system was created by Sberbank around 1995–1996. It uses BGS Smartcard Systems AG smart card technology i.e. DUET. Sberbank was a single retail bank in USSR before 1990. De facto this is a payment system of the SberBank.
• Zolotaya Korona. This card brand was created in 1994. Zolotay Korona is based on CFT technology.
• STB Card. This card uses the classic magnetic stripe technology. It almost fully collapsed after 1998 (GKO crisis) with STB bank failure.
• Union Card. The card also uses the classic magnetic stripe technology. This card brand is on the decline. These accounts are being reissued as Visa or MasterCard accounts.

Nearly every transaction, regardless of brand or system, is processed as an immediate debit transaction. Non-debit transactions within these systems have spending limits that are strictly limited when compared with typical Visa or MasterCard accounts.

Singapore

Singapore’s debit service is managed by Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS), founded by Singapore’s leading banks, DBS, Keppel Bank, OCBC, OUB, POSB, Tat Lee Bank and UOB in 1985 as a result of a need for a centralised e-Payment operator.It will deduct money from your bank directly when you buy things using debits card.

United Kingdom

In the UK debit cards (an integrated EFTPOS system) are an established part of the retail market and are widely accepted both by bricks and mortar stores and by internet stores. The term EFTPOS is not widely used by the public, debit card (or Switch, even when referring to a Visa card) is the generic term used. Cards commonly in circulation include Maestro (previously Switch), Solo, Visa Debit (previously Visa Delta) and Visa Electron. Banks do not charge customers for EFTPOS transactions in the UK, but some retailers make small charges, particularly where the transaction amount in question is small. The UK has converted all debit cards in circulation to Chip and PIN (except for Chip and Signature cards issued to people with certain disabilities), based on the EMV standard, to increase transaction security; however, PINs are not required for internet transactions.

In the United Kingdom, banks started to issue debit cards in the mid 1980s in a bid to reduce the number of cheques being used at the point of sale, which are costly for the banks to process. As in most countries, fees paid by merchants in the United Kingdom to accept credit cards are a percentage of the transaction amount, which funds card holders’ interest-free credit periods as well as incentive schemes such as points, airmiles or cashback. Debit cards do not usually have these characteristics, and so the fee for merchants to accept debit cards is a low fixed amount, regardless of transaction amount.  For very small amounts, this means it is cheaper for a merchant to accept a credit card than a debit card. Although merchants won the right through The Credit Cards (Price Discrimination) Order 1990 to charge customers different prices according to the payment method, few merchants in the UK charge less for payment by debit card than by credit card, the most notable exceptions being budget airlines, travel agents and IKEA. Debit cards in the UK lack the advantages offered to holders of UK-issued credit cards, such as free incentives (points, airmiles, cashback etc), interest-free credit and protection against defaulting merchants under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. Almost all establishments in the United Kingdom that accept credit cards also accept debit cards (although not always Solo and Visa Electron), but a minority of merchants, for cost reasons, accept debit cards and not credit cards (for example the Post Office and, until 1999, John Lewis).

United States

In the U.S., EFTPOS is universally referred to simply as debit. The same interbank networks that operate the ATM network also operate the POS network. Most interbank networks, such as Pulse, NYCE, MAC,Tyme, SHAZAM, STAR, etc. are regional and do not overlap, however, most ATM/POS networks have agreements to accept each other’s cards. This means that cards issued by one network will typically work anywhere they accept ATM/POS cards for payment. For example, a NYCE card will work at a Pulse POS terminal or ATM, and vice versa. Many debit cards in the United States are issued with a Visa or MasterCard logo allowing use of their signature-based networks.

The liability of a U.S. debit card user in case of loss or theft is up to 50 USD if the loss or theft is reported to the issuing bank in two business days after the customer notices the loss.

The fees charged to merchants on offline debit purchases—and the lack of fees charged merchants for processing online debit purchases and paper checks—have prompted some major merchants in the U.S. to file lawsuits against debit-card transaction processors such as Visa and MasterCard. In 2003, Visa and MasterCard agreed to settle the largest of these lawsuits and agreed to settlements of billions of dollars.

Some consumers prefer “credit” transactions because of the lack of a fee charged to the consumer/purchaser; also, a few debit cards in the U.S. offer rewards for using “credit” (e.g. Washington Mutual’s “WaMoola” and S&T Bank’s “Preferred Debit Rewards Card”). However, since “credit” costs more for merchants, many terminals at PIN-accepting merchant locations now make the “credit” function more difficult to access. For example, if you swipe a debit card at Wal-Mart in the U.S., you are immediately presented with the PIN screen for online debit; to use offline debit you must press “cancel” to exit the PIN screen, then press “credit” on the next screen.

One additional problem surrounding the use of debit cards is their use at a self-service gas pump like those common in the U.S. The customer might want to purchase fuel on their debit card, but the pump’s computer does not know how much fuel the customer wants. The pump is activated by the customer presenting their card to a card reader (see methods described above) and possibly entering a PIN. At this point the pump will dispense fuel, though no sales transaction has completed. The pump has no way of knowing how much fuel will be sold, nor how much money is available in the customer’s debit account. In a typical sale transaction, trying to spend more money than is available in your account (credit or debit) will result in a “no-sale” alert to the merchant, and the sale does not occur. At a self-serve fuel pump, the fuel is already in the customer’s tank by the time the bank knows the final sale price. Several solutions to this problem are in place, such as denying $1 pre-authorizations when an account holds less than $10 while still allowing transactions for specific amounts, but the concept of delivering the merchandise before the sales transaction plagues the debit card system. The commission is sometimes so high that the gas station sometimes actually loses money when someone pays for gas with credit. When pay at the pump started in the 1980s, many gas stations offered a discount for paying with cash. Most of them stopped doing that because the discount did not significantly increase their cash sales.

2009-07-08: Minimum and Maximum Charges for Visa in USA

The Merchants Agreement for Visa states (page 9, or 14/141 in PDF):

Always honor valid Visa cards in your acceptance category, regardless of the dollar amount of the purchase. Imposing minimum or maximum purchase amounts in order to accept a Visa card transaction is a violation of the Visa rules.

The file is located at:

FSA, HRA, and HSA debit cards

In the U.S.A, a FSA debit card only allows medical expenses. It is used by some banks for withdrawals from their FSAs, MSAs, and HSAs as well. They have Visa or MasterCard logos, but cannot be used as “debit cards”, only as “credit cards”", and they are not accepted by all merchants that accept debit and credit cards, but only by those that accept FSA debit cards. Merchant codes and product codes are used at the point of sale (required by law by certain merchants by certain dates in the USA) to restrict sales if they do not qualify. Because of the extra checking and documenting that goes on, later, the statement can be used to substantiate these purchases for tax deductions. In the occasional instance that a qualifying purchase is rejected, another form of payment must be used (a check or payment from another account and a claim for reimbursement later). In the more likely case that non-qualifying items are accepted, the consumer is technically still responsible, and the discrepancy could be revealed during an audit. A small but growing segment of the debit card business in the U.S. involves access to tax-favored spending accounts such as flexible spending accounts (FSA), health reimbursement accounts (HRA), and health savings accounts (HSA). Most of these debit cards are for medical expenses, though a few are also issued for dependent care and transportation expenses.

Traditionally, FSAs (the oldest of these accounts) were accessed only through claims for reimbursement after incurring, and often paying, an out-of-pocket expense; this often happens after the funds have already been deducted from the employee’s paycheck. (FSAs are usually funded by payroll deduction.) The only method permitted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to avoid this “double-dipping” for medical FSAs and HRAs is through accurate and auditable reporting on the tax return. Statements on the debit card that say “for medical uses only” are invalid for several reasons: (1) The merchant and issuing banks have no way of quickly determining whether the entire purchase qualifies for the customer’s type of tax benefit; (2) the customer also has no quick way of knowing; often has mixed purchases by necessity or convenience; and can easily make mistakes; (3) extra contractual clauses between the customer and issuing bank would cross-over into the payment processing standards, creating additional confusion (for example if a customer was penalized for accidentally purchasing a non-qualifying item, it would undercut the potential savings advantages of the account). Therefore, using the card exclusively for qualifying purchases may be convenient for the customer, but it has nothing to do with how the card can actually be used. If the bank rejects a transaction, for instance, because it is not at a recognized drug store, then it would be causing harm and confusion to the cardholder. In the United States, not all medical service or supply stores are capable of providing the correct information so an FSA debit card issuer can honor every transaction-if rejected or documentation is not deemed enough to satisfy regulations, cardholders may have to send in forms manually.

Debtor: A debtor is an entity that owes a debt to someone else. The entity may be an individual, a firm, a government, a company or other legal person. The counterparty is called a creditor. When the counterparts of this debt arrangement is a bank, the debtor is more often referred to as a borrower.

Default

Main article: Default (finance)

Default occurs when the debtor has not met its legal obligations according to the debt contract, e.g.- it has not made a scheduled payment, or has violated a covenant in the debt contract. Default may occur if the debtor is either unwilling or unable to pay its debt. This can occur with all debt obligations including bonds, mortgages, loans, and promissory notes.
If the debt owed becomes beyond the possibility of repayment, the debtor faces insolvency or bankruptcy; in the United Kingdom and some states of the United States until the mid-19th century, debtors could be imprisoned in debtor’s prisons, while in some countries such as Greece the practice of imprisoning debtors is still practiced.

Debtor in Bankruptcy and Individual Voluntary Arrangements

An Individual Voluntary Arrangement is a legally binding arrangement supervised by a licensed Insolvency Practitioner, the purpose of which is to enable an individual, sole trader or Partner (“the Debtor”) to reach a compromise with his creditors and avoid the consequences of bankruptcy. The compromise should offer a larger repayment towards the creditor’s debt than could otherwise be expected were the Debtor to be made bankrupt. This is often facilitated by the Debtor making contributions to the arrangement from his income over a designated period or from a third party contribution or other source that would not ordinarily be available to a Trustee in Bankruptcy

Other uses

In the Latin version of the Lord’s Prayer, the words Et dimitte nobis debita nostra/Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris, the words Debtor and Debt are sometimes translated as Sinner and Sin. This particular understanding of sin, as a form of debt that humanity inherits, is related to the soteriological theory of substitutionary atonement, which states that Jesus died on the cross as a propitiation, or substitute, for sinners.

Debenture: In law, a debenture is a document that either creates a debt or acknowledges it. The term is used in corporate finance for a medium to long-term debt instrument used by large companies to borrow money. In some countries the term is used interchangeably with bond, loan stock or note.

Debentures are generally freely transferable by the debenture holder. Debenture holders have no voting rights and the interest paid to them is a charge against profit in the company’s financial statements.

In the United States, debenture refers specifically to an unsecured corporate bond; i.e., a bond that does not have a certain line of income or piece of property or equipment to guarantee repayment of principal upon the bond’s maturity. Where security is provided for loan stocks or bonds in the US, they are termed ‘mortgage bonds’.

However, in the United Kingdom a debenture is usually secured.  In Asia, if repayment is secured by a charge over land, the loan document is called a mortgage; where repayment is secured by a charge other assets of the company, the document is called a debenture; and where no security is involved, the document is called a note or ‘unsecured deposit note’.

A US corporation receives an advantage when it issues debentures (as opposed to issuing secured corporate bonds) because it means that the company does not have to set aside certain assets or income to guarantee against its default in paying back the principal at maturity. Therefore, a corporation that issues debentures may use for other financing activities those assets or funds that would otherwise be held in a separate account.

Types

There are two types of debentures:

1. Convertible debentures, which are convertible bonds or bonds that can be converted into equity shares of the issuing company after a predetermined period of time. “Convertibility” is a feature that corporations may add to the bonds they issue to make them more attractive to buyers. In other words, it is a special feature that a corporate bond may carry. As a result of the advantage a buyer gets from the ability to convert, convertible bonds typically have lower interest rates than non-convertible corporate bonds.
2. Non-convertible debentures, which are simply regular debentures, cannot be converted into equity shares of the liable company. They are debentures without the convertibility feature attached to them. As a result, they usually carry higher interest rates than their convertible counterparts.

Usage in sports

A large number of sporting organizations have used the issuing of debentures to allow their fans to gain a financial stake in the club, and to foster a sense of community. The organizers of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, The All England Club, issue their debenture holders a pair of tickets for each day of the tournament. Furthermore, only debenture holders are permitted to sell their tickets to third parties.

Other sports organizations which issue debentures in a similar fashion include:

• Arsenal Football Club
• Hampden Park
• Wembley Stadium
• The Millennium Stadium
• Twickenham Stadium
• Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
• Donington Park

In 2007 a group of debenture holders in the All England Club created the first website allowing debenture holders to sell tickets directly to members of the public. Formerly, most tickets sold to the general public were sold by ticket touts, who had purchased them from debenture holders for considerably less. The new website allows debenture holders to sell their own tickets without paying a middle man, thus making the tickets themselves considerably cheaper for consumers.

Deferred financing costs: Deferred financing costs is an accounting concept meaning costs associated with issuing debt (loans and bonds), such as various fees and commissions paid to investment banks, law firms, auditors, and so on. Since these payments generate future benefits, they are treated as an asset. The costs are capitalized, reflected in the balance sheet as an asset, and amortized over the finite life of the underlying debt instrument. Early debt repayment results in expensing these costs.

In case of issuing securities without specific maturity, such as perpetual preferred stock, financing costs are not capitalized and expensed immediately.
Delivery versus payment: Delivery versus payment or DVP is a SWIFT Message Type (MT 543) that is used to reduce risk in the settlement of a financial transaction. Ideally, title to an asset and payment are exchanged simultaneously. This may be possible in many cases such as in a central depository system like Depository Trust Corporation

Depository bank: A depository bank (U.S. usage) is a bank organized in the United States which provides all the stock transfer and agency services in connection with a depository receipt program. This function includes arranging for a custodian to accept deposits of ordinary shares, issuing the negotiable receipts which back up the shares, maintaining the register of holders to reflect all transfers and exchanges, and distributing dividends in U.S. dollars.

Depository Trust Company (DTC): The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), based primarily at 55 Water Street in New York City, is the world’s largest post-trade financial services company. It was set up to provide an efficient and safe way for buyers and sellers of securities to make their exchange, and thus “clear and settle” transactions. It also provides custody of securities.

User-owned and directed, it automates, centralizes, standardizes, and streamlines processes that are critical to the safety and soundness of the world’s capital markets. Through its subsidiaries, DTCC provides clearance, settlement, and information services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, unit investment trusts, government and mortgage-backed securities, money market instruments, and over-the-counter derivatives. DTCC is also a leading processor of mutual funds and insurance transactions, linking funds and carriers with their distribution networks. DTCC’s DTC depository provides custody and asset servicing for 3.5 million securities issues, comprised mostly of stocks and bonds, from the United States and 110 other countries and territories, valued at $40 trillion, more than any other depository in the world.

In 2007, DTCC settled the vast majority of securities transactions in the United States, more than $1.86 quadrillion in value. DTCC has operating facilities in New York City, and at multiple locations in and outside the U.S.

In 2007 Chief Executive Officer Donald F. Donahue was named to the additional office of Chairman of DTCC and its subsidiaries, and Chief Operating Officer William B. Aimetti was named President.

In 2008, The Clearing Corporation and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation announced CCorp members will benefit from CCorp’s netting and risk management processes, and will leverage the asset servicing capabilities of DTCC’s Trade Information Warehouse for credit default swaps (CDS).

Derivative: A derivative is a financial instrument that is derived from some other asset, index, event, value or condition (known as the underlying asset). Rather than trade or exchange the underlying asset itself, derivative traders enter into an agreement to exchange cash or assets over time based on the underlying asset. A simple example is a futures contract: an agreement to exchange the underlying asset at a future date.

Derivatives are often leveraged, such that a small movement in the underlying value can cause a large difference in the value of the derivative.

Derivatives can be used by investors to speculate and to make a profit if the value of the underlying moves the way they expect (e.g. moves in a given direction, stays in or out of a specified range, reaches a certain level). Alternatively, traders can use derivatives to hedge or mitigate risk in the underlying, by entering into a derivative contract whose value moves in the opposite direction to their underlying position and cancels part or all of it out.

Derivatives are usually broadly categorized by:

• The relationship between the underlying and the derivative (e.g. forward, option, swap)
• The type of underlying (e.g. Equity derivatives, foreign exchange derivatives, credit derivatives)
• The market in which they trade (e.g., exchange traded or over-the-counter)

Uses

Hedging

A technique designed to eliminate or reduce risk.

Derivatives allow risk about the price of the underlying asset to be transferred from one party to another. For example, a wheat farmer and a miller could sign a futures contract to exchange a specified amount of cash for a specified amount of wheat in the future. Both parties have reduced a future risk: for the wheat farmer, the uncertainty of the price, and for the miller, the availability of wheat. However, there is still the risk that no wheat will be available due to causes unspecified by the contract, like the weather, or that one party will renege on the contract. Although a third party, called a clearing house, insures a futures contract, not all derivatives are insured against counterparty risk.

From another perspective, the farmer and the miller both reduce a risk and acquire a risk when they sign the futures contract: The farmer reduces the risk that the price of wheat will fall below the price specified in the contract and acquires the risk that the price of wheat will rise above the price specified in the contract (thereby losing additional income that he could have earned). The miller, on the other hand, acquires the risk that the price of wheat will fall below the price specified in the contract (thereby paying more in the future than he otherwise would) and reduces the risk that the price of wheat will rise above the price specified in the contract. In this sense, one party is the insurer (risk taker) for one type of risk, and the counterparty is the insurer (risk taker) for another type of risk.

Hedging also occurs when an individual or institution buys an asset (like a commodity, a bond that has coupon payments, a stock that pays dividends, and so on) and sells it using a futures contract. The individual or institution has access to the asset for a specified amount of time, and then can sell it in the future at a specified price according to the futures contract. Of course, this allows the individual or institution the benefit of holding the asset while reducing the risk that the future selling price will deviate unexpectedly from the market’s current assessment of the future value of the asset.

Derivatives serve a legitimate business purpose. For example a corporation borrows a large sum of money at a specific interest rate.  The rate of interest on the loan resets every six months. the corporation is concerned that the rate of interest may be much higher in six months. The corporation could buy a forward rate agreement. A forward rate agreement is a contract to pay a fixed rate of interest six months after purchases on a notional sum of money.  If the interest rate after six months is above the contract rate the seller pays the difference to the FRA buyer, the corporation. If the rate is lower the corporation would pay the difference to the seller. The purchase of the FRA would serve to reduce the uncertainty concerning the rate increase and stabilize earnings.

Speculation and arbitrage

Derivatives can be used to acquire risk, rather than to insure or hedge against risk. Thus, some individuals and institutions will enter into a derivative contract to speculate on the value of the underlying asset, betting that the party seeking insurance will be wrong about the future value of the underlying asset. Speculators will want to be able to buy an asset in the future at a low price according to a derivative contract when the future market price is high, or to sell an asset in the future at a high price according to a derivative contract when the future market price is low.

Individuals and institutions may also look for arbitrage opportunities, as when the current buying price of an asset falls below the price specified in a futures contract to sell the asset.

Speculative trading in derivatives gained a great deal of notoriety in 1995 when Nick Leeson, a trader at Barings Bank, made poor and unauthorized investments in futures contracts. Through a combination of poor judgment, lack of oversight by the bank’s management and by regulators, and unfortunate events like the Kobe earthquake, Leeson incurred a $1.3 billion loss that bankrupted the centuries-old institution.

Types of derivatives

OTC and exchange-traded

Broadly speaking there are two distinct groups of derivative contracts, which are distinguished by the way they are traded in the market:

• Over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives are contracts that are traded (and privately negotiated) directly between two parties, without going through an exchange or other intermediary. Products such as swaps, forward rate agreements, and exotic options are almost always traded in this way. The OTC derivative market is the largest market for derivatives, and is largely unregulated with respect to disclosure of information between the parties, since the OTC market is made up of banks and other highly sophisticated parties, such as hedge funds. Reporting of OTC amounts are difficult because trades can occur in private, without activity being visible on any exchange. According to the Bank for International Settlements, the total outstanding notional amount is $684 trillion (as of June 2008)^[4]. Of this total notional amount, 67% are interest rate contracts, 8% are credit default swaps (CDS), 9% are foreign exchange contracts, 2% are commodity contracts, 1% are equity contracts, and 12% are other. Because OTC derivatives are not traded on an exchange, there is no central counterparty. Therefore, they are subject to counterparty risk, like an ordinary contract, since each counterparty relies on the other to perform.
• Exchange-traded derivatives (ETD) are those derivatives products that are traded via specialized derivatives exchanges or other exchanges. A derivatives exchange acts as an intermediary to all related transactions, and takes Initial margin from both sides of the trade to act as a guarantee. The world’s largest^[5] derivatives exchanges (by number of transactions) are the Korea Exchange (which lists KOSPI Index Futures & Options), Eurex (which lists a wide range of European products such as interest rate & index products), and CME Group (made up of the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade and the 2008 acquisition of the New York Mercantile Exchange). According to BIS, the combined turnover in the world’s derivatives exchanges totaled USD 344 trillion during Q4 2005. Some types of derivative instruments also may trade on traditional exchanges. For instance, hybrid instruments such as convertible bonds and/or convertible preferred may be listed on stock or bond exchanges. Also, warrants (or “rights”) may be listed on equity exchanges. Performance Rights, Cash xPRTs and various other instruments that essentially consist of a complex set of options bundled into a simple package are routinely listed on equity exchanges. Like other derivatives, these publicly traded derivatives provide investors access to risk/reward and volatility characteristics that, while related to an underlying commodity, nonetheless are distinctive.

Common derivative contract types

There are three major classes of derivatives:

1. Futures/Forwards are contracts to buy or sell an asset on or before a future date at a price specified today. A futures contract differs from a forward contract in that the futures contract is a standardized contract written by a clearing house that operates an exchange where the contract can be bought and sold, while a forward contract is a non-standardized contract written by the parties themselves.
2. Options are contracts that give the owner the right, but not the obligation, to buy (in the case of a call option) or sell (in the case of a put option) an asset. The price at which the sale takes place is known as the strike price, and is specified at the time the parties enter into the option. The option contract also specifies a maturity date. In the case of a European option, the owner has the right to require the sale to take place on (but not before) the maturity date; in the case of an American option, the owner can require the sale to take place at any time up to the maturity date. If the owner of the contract exercises this right, the counterparty has the obligation to carry out the transaction.
3. Swaps are contracts to exchange cash (flows) on or before a specified future date based on the underlying value of currencies/exchange rates, bonds/interest rates, commodities, stocks or other assets.

More complex derivatives can be created by combining the elements of these basic types. For example, the holder of a swaption has the right, but not the obligation, to enter into a swap on or before a specified future date.

Examples

The overall derivatives market has five major classes of underlying asset:

• interest rate derivatives (the largest)
• foreign exchange derivatives
• credit derivatives
• equity derivatives
• commodity derivatives
• Weather derivatives

Some common examples of these derivatives are:

UNDERLYING	CONTRACT TYPES
	Exchange-traded futures	Exchange-traded options	OTC swap	OTC forward	OTC option
Equity	DJIA Index future Single-stock future	Option on DJIA Index future Single-share option	Equity swap	Back-to-back Repurchase agreement	Stock option Warrant Turbo warrant
Interest rate	Eurodollar future Euribor future	Option on Eurodollar future Option on Euribor future	Interest rate swap	Forward rate agreement	Interest rate cap and floor Swaption Basis swap Bond option
Credit	Bond future	Option on Bond future	Credit default swap Total return swap	Repurchase agreement	Credit default option
Foreign exchange	Currency future	Option on currency future	Currency swap	Currency forward	Currency option
Commodity	WTI crude oil futures	Weather derivatives	Commodity swap	Iron ore forward contract	Gold option

Other examples of underlying exchangeables are:

• Property (mortgage) derivatives
• Economic derivatives that pay off according to economic reports [1] as measured and reported by national statistical agencies
• Freight derivatives
• Inflation derivatives
• Insurance derivatives^{[citation needed]}

Cash flow

The payments between the parties may be determined by:

• The price of some other, independently traded asset in the future (e.g., a common stock);
• The level of an independently determined index (e.g., a stock market index or heating-degree-days);
• The occurrence of some well-specified event (e.g., a company defaulting);
• An interest rate;
• An exchange rate;
• Or some other factor.

Some derivatives are the right to buy or sell the underlying security or commodity at some point in the future for a predetermined price. If the price of the underlying security or commodity moves into the right direction, the owner of the derivative makes money; otherwise, they lose money or the derivative becomes worthless. Depending on the terms of the contract, the potential gain or loss on a derivative can be much higher than if they had traded the underlying security or commodity directly.

Valuation

Market and arbitrage-free prices

Two common measures of value are:

• Market price, i.e. the price at which traders are willing to buy or sell the contract
• Arbitrage-free price, meaning that no risk-free profits can be made by trading in these contracts; see rational pricing

Determining the market price

For exchange-traded derivatives, market price is usually transparent (often published in real time by the exchange, based on all the current bids and offers placed on that particular contract at any one time). Complications can arise with OTC or floor-traded contracts though, as trading is handled manually, making it difficult to automatically broadcast prices. In particular with OTC contracts, there is no central exchange to collate and disseminate prices.

Determining the arbitrage-free price

The arbitrage-free price for a derivatives contract is complex, and there are many different variables to consider. Arbitrage-free pricing is a central topic of financial mathematics. The stochastic process of the price of the underlying asset is often crucial. A key equation for the theoretical valuation of options is the Black–Scholes formula, which is based on the assumption that the cash flows from a European stock option can be replicated by a continuous buying and selling strategy using only the stock. A simplified version of this valuation technique is the binomial options model.

Criticisms

Derivatives are often subject to the following criticisms:

Possible large losses

See also: List of trading losses

The use of derivatives can result in large losses due to the use of leverage, or borrowing. Derivatives allow investors to earn large returns from small movements in the underlying asset’s price. However, investors could lose large amounts if the price of the underlying moves against them significantly. There have been several instances of massive losses in derivative markets, such as:

• The need to recapitalize insurer American International Group (AIG) with $85 billion of debt provided by the US federal government^[8]. An AIG subsidiary had lost more than $18 billion over the preceding three quarters on Credit Default Swaps (CDS) it had written.  It was reported that the recapitalization was necessary because further losses were foreseeable over the next few quarters.
• The loss of $7.2 Billion by Société Générale in January 2008 through mis-use of futures contracts.
• The loss of US$6.4 billion in the failed fund Amaranth Advisors, which was long natural gas in September 2006 when the price plummeted.
• The loss of US$4.6 billion in the failed fund Long-Term Capital Management in 1998.
• The bankruptcy of Orange County, CA in 1994, the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. On December 6, 1994, Orange County declared Chapter 9 bankruptcy, from which it emerged in June 1995. The county lost about $1.6 billion through derivatives trading. Orange County was neither bankrupt nor insolvent at the time; however, because of the strategy the county employed it was unable to generate the cash flows needed to maintain services. Orange County is a good example of what happens when derivatives are used incorrectly and positions liquidated in an unplanned manner; had they not liquidated they would not have lost any money as their positions rebounded.  Potentially problematic use of interest-rate derivatives by US municipalities has continued in recent years. See, for example:^[10]
• The Nick Leeson affair in 1994

Counter-party risk

Derivatives (especially swaps) expose investors to counter-party risk.

For example, suppose a person wanting a fixed interest rate loan for his business, but finding that banks only offer variable rates, swaps payments with another business who wants a variable rate, synthetically creating a fixed rate for the person. However if the second business goes bankrupt, it can’t pay its variable rate and so the first business will lose its fixed rate and will be paying a variable rate again. If interest rates have increased, it is possible that the first business may be adversely affected, because it may not be prepared to pay the higher variable rate.

Different types of derivatives have different levels of risk for this effect. For example, standardized stock options by law require the party at risk to have a certain amount deposited with the exchange, showing that they can pay for any losses; Banks who help businesses swap variable for fixed rates on loans may do credit cheques on both parties. However in private agreements between two companies, for example, there may not be benchmarks for performing due diligence and risk analysis.

Unsuitably high risk for small/inexperienced investors

Derivatives pose unsuitably high amounts of risk for small or inexperienced investors. Because derivatives offer the possibility of large rewards, they offer an attraction even to individual investors. However, speculation in derivatives often assumes a great deal of risk, requiring commensurate experience and market knowledge, especially for the small investor, a reason why some financial planners advise against the use of these instruments. Derivatives are complex instruments devised as a form of insurance, to transfer risk among parties based on their willingness to assume additional risk, or hedge against it.

Large notional value

• Derivatives typically have a large notional value. As such, there is the danger that their use could result in losses that the investor would be unable to compensate for. The possibility that this could lead to a chain reaction ensuing in an economic crisis, has been pointed out by famed investor Warren Buffett in Berkshire Hathaway‘s 2002 annual report. Buffett called them ‘financial weapons of mass destruction.’ The problem with derivatives is that they control an increasingly larger notional amount of assets and this may lead to distortions in the real capital and equities markets. Investors begin to look at the derivatives markets to make a decision to buy or sell securities and so what was originally meant to be a market to transfer risk now becomes a leading indicator.

(See Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report for 2002)

Leverage of an economy’s debt

Derivatives massively leverage the debt in an economy, making it ever more difficult for the underlying real economy to service its debt obligations, thereby curtailing real economic activity, which can cause a recession or even depression. In the view of Marriner S. Eccles, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman from November, 1934 to February, 1948, too high a level of debt was one of the primary causes of the 1920s-30s Great Depression. (See Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report for 2002)

Benefits

Nevertheless, the use of derivatives also has its benefits:

• Derivatives facilitate the buying and selling of risk, and many people consider this to have a positive impact on the economic system. Although someone loses money while someone else gains money with a derivative, under normal circumstances, trading in derivatives should not adversely affect the economic system because it is not zero sum in utility.
• Former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan commented in 2003 that he believed that the use of derivatives has softened the impact of the economic downturn at the beginning of the 21st century.^{[citation needed]}
• Bilateral netting: A legally enforceable arrangement between a bank and a counter-party that creates a single legal obligation covering all included individual contracts. This means that a bank’s obligation, in the event of the default or insolvency of one of the parties, would be the net sum of all positive and negative fair values of contracts included in the bilateral netting arrangement.
• Credit derivative: A contract that transfers credit risk from a protection buyer to a credit protection seller. Credit derivative products can take many forms, such as credit default swaps, credit linked notes and total return swaps.
• Derivative: A financial contract whose value is derived from the performance of assets, interest rates, currency exchange rates, or indexes. Derivative transactions include a wide assortment of financial contracts including structured debt obligations and deposits, swaps, futures, options, caps, floors, collars, forwards and various combinations thereof.
• Exchange-traded derivative contracts: Standardized derivative contracts (e.g. futures contracts and options) that are transacted on an organized futures exchange.
• Gross negative fair value: The sum of the fair values of contracts where the bank owes money to its counter-parties, without taking into account netting. This represents the maximum losses the bank’s counter-parties would incur if the bank defaults and there is no netting of contracts, and no bank collateral was held by the counter-parties.
• Gross positive fair value: The sum total of the fair values of contracts where the bank is owed money by its counter-parties, without taking into account netting. This represents the maximum losses a bank could incur if all its counter-parties default and there is no netting of contracts, and the bank holds no counter-party collateral.
• High-risk mortgage securities: Securities where the price or expected average life is highly sensitive to interest rate changes, as determined by the FFIEC policy statement on high-risk mortgage securities.
• Notional amount: The nominal or face amount that is used to calculate payments made on swaps and other risk management products. This amount generally does not change hands and is thus referred to as notional.
• Over-the-counter (OTC) derivative contracts: Privately negotiated derivative contracts that are transacted off organized futures exchanges.
• Structured notes: Non-mortgage-backed debt securities, whose cash flow characteristics depend on one or more indices and / or have embedded forwards or options.
• Total risk-based capital: The sum of tier 1 plus tier 2 capital. Tier 1 capital consists of common shareholders equity, perpetual preferred shareholders equity with non-cumulative dividends, retained earnings, and minority interests in the equity accounts of consolidated subsidiaries. Tier 2 capital consists of subordinated debt, intermediate-term preferred stock, cumulative and long-term preferred stock, and a portion of a bank’s allowance for loan and lease losses.

Definitions

Discounted cash flow: In finance, the discounted cash flow (DCF) approach describes a method of valuing a project, company, or asset using the concepts of the time value of money. All future cash flows are estimated and discounted to give their present values. The discount rate used is generally the appropriate WACC, which reflects the risk of the cashflows. The discount rate reflects two things:

1. the time value of money (risk rate) – investors would rather have cash immediately than having to wait and must therefore be compensated by paying for the delay.

2. a risk premium (risk premium rate) – reflects the extra return investors demand because they want to be compensated for the risk that the cash flow might not materialize after all.

Discounted cash flow analysis is widely used in investment finance, real estate development, and corporate financial management.

Very similar is the net present value.

History

In 1938, John Burr Williams was the first to formally articulate the DCF method in a working paper released with the title “The Theory of Investment Value”.

Mathematics

Discrete cash flows

The discounted cash flow formula is derived from the future value formula for calculating the time value of money and compounding returns.

Thus the discounted present value (for one cash flow in one future period) is expressed as:

where

• DPV is the discounted present value of the future cash flow (FV), or FV adjusted for the delay in receipt;
• FV is the nominal value of a cash flow amount in a future period;
• i is the interest rate, which reflects the cost of tying up capital and may also allow for the risk that the payment may not be received in full;
• d is the discount rate, which is i/(1+i), ie the interest rate expressed as a deduction at the beginning of the year instead of an addition at the end of the year;
• n is the time in years before the future cash flow occurs.

Where multiple cash flows in multiple time periods are discounted, it is necessary to sum them as follows:

for each future cash flow (FV) at any time period (t) in years from the present time, summed over all time periods. The sum can then be used as a net present value figure. If the amount to be paid at time 0 (now) for all the future cash flows is known, then that amount can be substituted for DPV and the equation can be solved for i, that is the internal rate of return.

All the above assumes that the interest rate remains constant throughout the whole period.

(1+i)^(-t) can of course also be expressed as exp(-it).

Continuous cash flows

With continuous cash flows, the summation in the above formula is replaced by an integration – nothing else changes:

where FV(t) is now the rate of cash flow.

Example DCF

To show how discounted cash flow analysis is performed, consider the following simplified example.

• John Doe buys a house for $100,000. Three years later, he expects to be able to sell this house for $150,000.

Simple subtraction suggests that the value of his profit on such a transaction would be $150,000 ? $100,000 = $50,000, or 50%. If that $50,000 is amortized over the three years, his implied annual return (known as the internal rate of return) would be about 14.5%. Looking at those figures, he might be justified in thinking that the purchase looked like a good idea.

1.145³ x 100000 = 150000 approximately.

However, since three years have passed between the purchase and the sale, any cash flow from the sale must be discounted accordingly. At the time John Doe buys the house, the 3-year US Treasury Note rate is 5% per annum. Treasury Notes are generally considered to be inherently less risky than real estate, since the value of the Note is guaranteed by the US Government and there is a liquid market for the purchase and sale of T-Notes. If he hadn’t put his money into buying the house, he could have invested it in the relatively safe T-Notes instead. This 5% per annum can therefore be regarded as the risk-free interest rate for the relevant period (3 years).

Using the DPV formula above, that means that the value of $150,000 received in three years actually has a present value of $129,576 (rounded off). Those future dollars aren’t worth the same as the dollars we have now.

Subtracting the purchase price of the house ($100,000) from the present value results in the net present value of the whole transaction, which would be $29,576 or a little more than 29% of the purchase price.

Another way of looking at the deal as the excess return achieved (over the risk-free rate) is (14.5%-5.0%)/(100%+5%) or approximately 9.0% (still very respectable). (As a check, 1.050 x 1.090 = 1.145 approximately.)

But what about risk?

We assume that the $150,000 is John’s best estimate of the sale price that he will be able to achieve in 3 years time (after deducting all expenses, of course). There is of course a lot of uncertainty about house prices, and the outturn may end up higher or lower than this estimate.

(The house John is buying is in a “good neighborhood”, but market values have been rising quite a lot lately and the real estate market analysts in the media are talking about a slow-down and higher interest rates. There is a probability that John might not be able to get the full $150,000 he is expecting in three years due to a slowing of price appreciation, or that loss of liquidity in the real estate market might make it very hard for him to sell at all.)

Under normal circumstances, people entering into such transactions are risk-averse, that is to say that they are prepared to accept a lower expected return for the sake of avoiding risk. See Capital asset pricing model for a further discussion of this. For the sake of the example (and this is a gross simplification), let’s assume that he values this particular risk at 5% per annum (we could perform a more precise probabilistic analysis of the risk, but that is beyond the scope of this article). Therefore, allowing for this risk, his expected return is now 9.0% per annum (the arithmetic is the same as above).

And the excess return over the risk-free rate is now (9.0%-5.0%)/(100% + 5%) which comes to approximately 3.8% per annum.

That return rate may seem low, but it is still positive after all of our discounting, suggesting that the investment decision is probably a good one: it produces enough profit to compensate for tying up capital and incurring risk with a little extra left over. When investors and managers perform DCF analysis, the important thing is that the net present value of the decision after discounting all future cash flows at least be positive (more than zero). If it is negative, that means that the investment decision would actually lose money even if it appears to generate a nominal profit. For instance, if the expected sale price of John Doe’s house in the example above was not $150,000 in three years, but $130,000 in three years or $150,000 in five years, then on the above assumptions buying the house would actually cause John to lose money in present-value terms (about $3,000 in the first case, and about $8,000 in the second). Similarly, if the house was located in an undesirable neighborhood and the Federal Reserve Bank was about to raise interest rates by five percentage points, then the risk factor would be a lot higher than 5%: it might not be possible for him to make a profit in discounted terms even if he could sell the house for $200,000 in three years.

In this example, only one future cash flow was considered. For a decision which generates multiple cash flows in multiple time periods, all the cash flows must be discounted and then summed into a single net present value.

Methods of appraisal of a company or project

This is necessarily a simple treatment of a complex subject: more detail is beyond the scope of this article.

For these valuation purposes, a number of different DCF methods are distinguished today, some of which are outlined below. The details are likely to vary depending on the capital structure of the company. However the assumptions used in the appraisal (especially the equity discount rate and the projection of the cash flows to be achieved) are likely to be at least as important as the precise model used.

Both the income stream selected and the associated cost of capital model determine the valuation result obtained with each method. This is one reason these valuation methods are formally referred to as the Discounted Future Economic Income methods.

• Equity-Approach
• Flows to equity approach (FTE)

Discount the cash flows available to the holders of equity capital, after allowing for cost of servicing debt capital

Advantages: Makes explicit allowance for the cost of debt capital

Disadvantages: Requires judgment on choice of discount rate

• Entity-Approach:
• Adjusted present value approach (APV)

Discount the cash flows before allowing for the debt capital (but allowing for the tax relief obtained on the debt capital)

Advantages: Simpler to apply if a specific project is being valued which does not have earmarked debt capital finance

Disadvantages: Requires judgment on choice of discount rate; no explicit allowance for cost of debt capital, which may be much higher than a “risk-free” rate

• Weighted average cost of capital approach (WACC)

Derive a weighted cost of the capital obtained from the various sources and use that discount rate to discount the cash flows from the project

Advantages: Overcomes the requirement for debt capital finance to be earmarked to particular projects

Disadvantages: Care must be exercised in the selection of the appropriate income stream. The net cash flow to total invested capital is the generally accepted choice.

• Total cash flow approach (TCF)

This distinction illustrates that the Discounted Cash Flow method can be used to determine the value of various business ownership interests. These can include equity or debt holders.

Alternatively, the method can be used to value the company based on the value of total invested capital. In each case, the differences lie in the choice of the income stream and discount rate. For example, the net cash flow to total invested capital and WACC are appropriate when valuing a company based on the market value of all invested capital.

History

Discounted cash flow calculations have been used in some form since money was first lent at interest in ancient times. As a method of asset valuation it has often been opposed to accounting book value, which is based on the amount paid for the asset. Following the stock market crash of 1929, discounted cash flow analysis gained popularity as a valuation method for stocks. Irving Fisher in his 1930 book “The Theory of Interest” and John Burr Williams‘s 1938 text ‘The Theory of Investment Value‘ first formally expressed the DCF method in modern economic terms.

Discount rate: The discount rate is an interest rate a central bank charges depository institutions that borrow reserves from it.

The term discount rate has two meanings:

• the same as interest rate; the term “discount” does not refer to the meaning of the word, but to the purpose of using the quantity, such as computations of present value, e.g. net present value or discounted cash flow
• the annual effective discount rate, which is the annual interest divided by the capital including that interest; this rate is lower than the interest rate; it corresponds to using the value after a year as the nominal value, and seeing the initial value as the nominal value minus a discount; it is used for Treasury Bills and similar financial instruments

Annual effective discount rate

The annual effective discount rate is the annual interest divided by the capital including that interest, which is the interest rate divided by 100% plus the interest rate. It is the annual discount factor to be applied to the future cash flow, to find the discount, subtracted from a future value to find the value one year earlier.

For example, suppose there is a government bond that sells for $95 and pays $100 in a year’s time. The discount rate according the given definition is

The interest rate is calculated using 95 as its base:

For every annual effective interest rate, there is a corresponding annual effective discount rate, given by the following formula:

or inversely,

where the approximations apply for small i and d; in fact i - d = id.

See also notation of interest rates.

Business calculations

Businesses need to consider the discount rate when deciding whether to spend some of their profits on buying a new piece of equipment, or whether to give the profit back to their shareholders. In an ideal world, they would only buy a piece of equipment if the shareholders would get a bigger profit later. The amount of extra profit that a shareholder requires in the future in order to prefer that the company buy the equipment rather than giving them the profit now is based on the shareholder’s discount rate. There is a widely used way of estimating shareholder’s discount rates using share price data. It is known as the capital asset pricing model. Businesses normally apply this discount rate to their decisions about purchasing equipment by calculating the net present value of the decision

Dividend: Dividends are payments made by a corporation to its shareholder members. It is the portion of corporate profits paid out to stockholders.^[1] When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, that money can be put to two uses: it can either be re-invested in the business (called retained earnings), or it can be paid to the shareholders as a dividend. Many corporations retain a portion of their earnings and pay the remainder as a dividend.

For a joint stock company, a dividend is allocated as a fixed amount per share. Therefore, a shareholder receives a dividend in proportion to their shareholding. For the joint stock company, paying dividends is not an expense; rather, it is the division of an asset among shareholders. Public companies usually pay dividends on a fixed schedule, but may declare a dividend at any time, sometimes called a special dividend to distinguish it from a regular one.

Cooperatives, on the other hand, allocate dividends according to members’ activity, so their dividends are often considered to be a pre-tax expense.

Dividends are usually settled on a cash basis, as a payment from the company to the shareholder. They can take other forms, such as store credits (common among retail consumers’ cooperatives) and shares in the company (either newly-created shares or existing shares bought in the market.) Further, many public companies offer dividend reinvestment plans, which automatically use the cash dividend to purchase additional shares for the shareholder.

Depreciation: Depreciation is a term used in accounting, economics and finance to spread the cost of an asset over the span of several years.

In simple words we can say that depreciation is the reduction in the value of an asset due to usage, passage of time, wear and tear, technological outdating or obsolescence, depletion, inadequacy, rot, rust, decay or other such factors.

In accounting, depreciation is a term used to describe any method of attributing the historical or purchase cost of an asset across its useful life, roughly corresponding to normal wear and tear.  It is of most use when dealing with assets of a short, fixed service life, and which is an example of applying the matching principle per generally accepted accounting principles. Depreciation in accounting is often mistakenly seen as a basis for recognizing impairment of an asset, but unexpected changes in value, where seen as significant enough to account for, are handled through write-downs or similar techniques which adjust the book value of the asset to reflect its current value. Therefore, it is important to recognize that depreciation, when used as a technical accounting term, is the allocation of the historical cost of an asset across time periods when the asset is employed to generate revenues. This process of cost allocation has little or no direct relationship to the market value or current selling price of the asset, it is simply the recognition that a portion of the asset’s cost–the portion that will never be recuperated through re-sale or disposal of the asset–was “used up” in the generation of revenues for that time period.

The use of depreciation affects the financial statements and in some countries the taxes of companies and individuals. The recording of depreciation will cause an expense to be recognized, thereby lowering stated profits on the income statement, while the net value of the asset (the portion of the historical cost of the asset that remains to provide future value to the company) will decline on the balance sheet. Depreciation reported for accounting and tax purposes may differ substantially.

Depreciation and its related concept, amortization (generally, the depreciation of intangible assets), are non-cash expenses. Neither depreciation nor amortization will directly affect the cash flow of a company, as both are accounting representations of expenses attributable to a given period. In accounting statements, depreciation may neither figure in the cash flow statement, nor be “added back” to net income (along with other items) to derive the operating cash flow.  Depreciation recognized for tax purposes will, however, affect the cash flow of the company, as tax depreciation will reduce taxable profits; there is generally no requirement that treatment of depreciation for tax and accounting purposes be identical. Where depreciation is shown on accounting statements, the figure usually does not match the depreciation for tax purposes.

Because of its non-standardized derivation, depreciation is a key component of EBITDA, a metric used to gauge the worth of a company independent of tax-jurisdiction effects and capitalization structure.

Salvage value is the estimated value of an asset at the end of its useful life. In accounting, the salvage value of an asset is its remaining value after depreciation. This is also known as residual value or scrap value. It is the net cash inflow that occurs when the asset is liquefied at the end of its life. Salvage value can be negative if the residual asset requires special treatment to terminate—for example, used nuclear materials or CRT’s containing lead.

In economics, depreciation is the decrease in the economic value of the capital stock of a firm, nation or other entity, either through physical depreciation, obsolescence or changes in the demand for the services of the capital in question. If capital stock is C₀ at the beginning of a period, investment is I and depreciation D, the capital stock at the end of the period, C₁, is C₀ + I - D.

Accounting

A company needs to report depreciation accurately in its financial statements in order to achieve two main objectives:

1. matching its expenses with the income generated by means of those expenses, and
2. ensuring that the asset values in the balance sheet are not overstated. (An asset acquired in Year 1 is unlikely to be worth the same amount in Year 5.)

Depreciation is an attempt to write-off the cost of Non Current Asset over its useful life, the word write-off means to turns into an expense. For example, an entity may depreciate its equipment by 15% per year. This rate should be reasonable in aggregate (such as when a manufacturing company is looking at all of its machinery), and consistently employed. However, there is no expectation that each individual item declines in value by the same amount, primarily because the recognition of depreciation is based upon the allocation of historical costs and not current market prices.

Accounting standards bodies have detailed rules on which methods of depreciation are acceptable, and auditors should express a view if they believe the assumptions underlying the estimates do not give a true and fair view.

Recording depreciation

For historical cost purposes, assets are recorded on the balance sheet at their original cost; this is called the historical cost. Historical cost minus all depreciation expenses recognized on the asset since purchase is called the book value. Depreciation is not taken out of these assets directly. It is instead recorded in a contra asset account: an asset account with a normal credit balance, typically called “accumulated depreciation”. Balancing an asset account with its corresponding accumulated depreciation account will result in the net book value. The net book value will never fall below the salvage value, meaning that once an asset is fully depreciated, no further expenses will be taken during its life. Salvage value is the estimated value of the asset at the end of its useful life. In this way, total depreciation for an asset will never exceed the estimated total cash outlay (depreciable basis) for the asset. The exception to this is in many price-regulated industries (public utilities) where salvage is estimated net of the cost of physically removing the asset from service. (Decommissioning a nuclear power plant is a nontrivial expense.) If the expected cost of removal exceeds the expected raw (or gross) salvage, then the net of the two (called net salvage) may be negative. In this case, the depreciation recorded on the regulated books may exceed the depreciable basis. Companies have no obligation to dispose of depreciated assets, of course, and many fully depreciated assets continue to generate income.

Recording a depreciation expense will involve a credit to an accumulated depreciation account. The corresponding debit will involve either an expense account or an asset account that represents a future expense, such as work in progress. Depreciation is recorded as an adjusting journal entry.

A write-down is a form of depreciation that involves a partial write off. Part of the value of the asset is removed from the balance sheet. The reason may be that the book value (accounted value) of the fixed asset has diverged from the market value and causes the company a loss. An example of this would be a revaluation of goodwill on an acquisition that went bad.

Methods of depreciation

There are several methods for calculating depreciation, generally based on either the passage of time or the level of activity (or use) of the asset.

Straight-line depreciation

Straight-line depreciation is the simplest and most-often-used technique, in which the company estimates the salvage value of the asset at the end of the period during which it will be used to generate revenues (useful life) and will expense a portion of original cost in equal increments over that period. The salvage value is an estimate of the value of the asset at the time it will be sold or disposed of; it may be zero or even negative. Salvage value is also known as scrap value or residual value.

Straight-Line Method:

For example, a vehicle that depreciates over 5 years, is purchased at a cost of US$17,000, and will have a salvage value of US$2000, will depreciate at US$3,000 per year: ($17,000 – $2,000)/ 5 years = $3,000annual straight-line depreciation expense. In other words, it is the depreciable cost of the asset divided by the number of years of its useful life.

This table illustrates the straight-line method of depreciation. Book value at the beginning of the first year of depreciation is the original cost of the asset. At any time book value equals original cost minus accumulated depreciation.

Book Value = Original Cost – Accumulated Depreciation Book value at the end of year becomes book value at the beginning of next year. The asset is depreciated until the book value equals scrap value.

If the vehicle were to be sold and the sales price exceeded the depreciated value (net book value) then the excess would be considered a gain and subject to depreciation recapture. In addition, this gain above the depreciated value would be recognized as ordinary income by the tax office. If the sales price is ever less than the book value, the resulting capital loss is tax deductible. If the sale price were ever more than the original book value, then the gain above the original book value is recognized as a capital gain.

If a company chooses to depreciate an asset at a different rate from that used by the tax office then this generates a timing difference in the income statement due to the difference (at a point in time) between the taxation department’s and company’s view of the profit.

Declining-Balance Method

Depreciation methods that provide for a higher depreciation charge in the first year of an asset’s life and gradually decreasing charges in subsequent years are called accelerated depreciation methods. This may be a more realistic reflection of an asset’s actual expected benefit from the use of the asset: many assets are most useful when they are new. One popular accelerated method is the declining-balance method. Under this method the Book Value is multiplied by a fixed rate.

Annual Depreciation = Depreciation Rate * Book Value at Beginning of Year

The most common rate used is double the straight-line rate. For this reason, this technique is referred to as the double-declining-balance method. To illustrate, suppose a business has an asset with $1,000Original Cost, $100 Salvage Value, and 5 years useful life. First, calculate straight-line depreciation rate. Since the asset has 5 years useful life, the straight-line depreciation rate equals (100% / 5) 20% per year. With double-declining-balance method, as the name suggests, double that rate, or 40% depreciation rate is used.

The table below illustrates the double-declining-balance method of depreciation. Book Value at the beginning of the first year of depreciation is the Original Cost of the asset. At any time Book Value equals Original Cost minus Accumulated Depreciation.

Book Value = Original Cost – Accumulated Depreciation

Book Value at the end of year becomes Book Value at the beginning of next year. The asset is depreciated until the Book Value equals Salvage Value, or Scrap Value.

The Salvage Value is not considered in determining the annual depreciation, but the Book Value of the asset being depreciated is never brought below its Salvage Value, regardless of the method used. The process continues until the Salvage Value, or the end of the asset’s useful life, is reached. In the last year of depreciation a subtraction might be needed in order to prevent Book Value from falling below estimated Scrap Value.

Since declining-balance depreciation doesn’t always depreciate an asset fully by its end of life, some methods also compute a straight-line depreciation each year, and apply the greater of the two. This has the effect of converting from declining-balance depreciation to straight-line depreciation at a midpoint in the asset’s life.

Activity depreciation

Activity depreciation methods are not based on time, but on a level of activity. This could be miles driven for a vehicle, or a cycle count for a machine. When the asset is acquired, its life is estimated in terms of this level of activity. Assume the vehicle above is estimated to go 50,000 miles in its lifetime. The per-mile depreciation rate is calculated as: ($17,000 cost – $2,000 salvage) / 50,000 miles = $0.30 per mile. Each year, the depreciation expense is then calculated by multiplying the rate by the actual activity level.

Sum-of-Years’ Digits Method

Sum-of-Years’ Digits is a depreciation method that results in a more accelerated write-off than straight line, but less than declining-balance method. Under this method annual depreciation is determined by multiplying the Depreciable Cost by a schedule of fractions.

Depreciable Cost = Original Cost – Salvage Value

Book Value = Original Cost – Accumulated Depreciation

Example: If an asset has Original Cost $1000, a useful life of 5 years and a Salvage Value of $100, compute its depreciation schedule.

First, determine Years’ digits. Since the asset has useful life of 5 years, the Years’ digits are: 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.

Next, calculate the sum of the digits. 5+4+3+2+1=15

Depreciation rates are as follows:

5/15 for the 1st year, 4/15 for the 2nd year, 3/15 for the 3rd year, 2/15 for the 4th year, and 1/15 for the 5th year.

Units-of-Production Depreciation Method

Under the Units-of-Production method, useful life of the asset is expressed in terms of the total number of units expected to be produced. Annual depreciation is computed in three steps.

First, a Depreciable Cost is computed.

Depreciable Cost = Original Cost – Salvage Value.

Second, Depreciation per Unit is computed. Depreciation charge per unit is computed by dividing Depreciable Cost by Total Units, expected to be produced during the useful life of the asset.

Depreciation per Unit = Depreciable Cost / Total Units of production

Third, annual depreciation, or Depreciation Expense, by another name, is computed. Depreciation Expense equals Depreciation per Unit multiplied by the number of units produced during the year.

Depreciation Expense = Depreciation per Unit * Units produced during the Year.

Book Value, as always, is calculated by subtracting Accumulated Depreciation from the Original Cost.

Book Value = Original Cost – Accumulated Depreciation

Suppose, an asset has Original Cost $70,000, Salvage Value $10,000, and is expected to produce 6,000 units.

Depreciable Cost = ($70,000-$10,000) $60,000

Depreciation per Unit = ($60,000 / 6,000) = $10

The table below illustrates the Units-of-Production depreciation schedule of the asset.

Depreciation stops when Book Value is equal to the Scrap Value of the asset. In the end the sum of Accumulated Depreciation and Scrap Value equals to the Original Cost.

Units of time depreciation

Units of Time Depreciation is similar to units of production, and is used for depreciation equipment used in mine or natural resource exploration, or cases where the amount the asset is used is not linear year to year.

A simple example can be given for construction companies, where some equipment is used only for some specific purpose. Depending on the number of projects, the equipment will be used and depreciation charged accordingly.

Group Depreciation Method

Group Depreciation method is used for depreciating multiple-asset accounts using straight-line-depreciation method. Assets must be similar in nature and have approximately the same useful lives.

Composite Depreciation Method

The composite method is applied to a collection of assets that are not similar, and have different service lives. For example, computers and printers are not similar, but both are part of the office equipment. Depreciation on all assets is determined by using the straight-line-depreciation method.

Composite life equals the total Depreciable Cost divided by the total Depreciation Per Year. $5,900 / $1,300 = 4.5 years.

Composite Depreciation Rate equals Depreciation Per Year divided by total Historical Cost. $1,300 / $6,500 = 0.20 = 20%

Depreciation Expense equals the composite Depreciation rate times the balance in the asset account. (0.20 * $6,500) $1,300. Debit Depreciation Expense and credit Accumulated Depreciation.

When an asset is sold, debit Cash for the amount received and credit the asset account for its original cost. Debit the difference between the two to Accumulated Depreciation. Under the Composite method no gain or loss is recognized on the sale of an asset.

To calculate Composite Depreciation Rate, divide Depreciation Per Year by total Historical Cost. To calculate Depreciation Expense, multiply the result by the same total Historical Cost. The result, not surprisingly, will equal to the total Depreciation Per Year again.

Common sense requires Depreciation Expense to be equal to total Depreciation Per Year, without first dividing and then multiplying total Depreciation Per Year by the same number. Creators of accounting rules sometimes are very creative.

Taxes

Main article: Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System

When a company spends money for a service or anything else that is short-lived, this expenditure is usually immediately tax deductible in some countries, and the company enjoys an immediate tax benefit.

To be eligible for depreciation, an asset must have two features:

1. it has a useful life beyond the taxable year (essentially why it was capitalized in the first place), and
2. it wears out, decays, declines in value due to natural causes, or is subject to exhaustion or obsolescence.

Therefore, when a company buys an asset that will last longer than one year, like a computer, car, or building, the company cannot immediately deduct the cost and enjoy an immediate large tax benefit. Instead, the company must depreciate the cost over the useful life of the asset, taking a tax deduction for a part of the cost each year. Eventually the company does get to deduct the full cost of the asset, but this happens over several years. In the US, the IRS‘s depreciation schedule for any given class of asset is fixed, and is related to typical durability. A computer may depreciate completely over five years; a nonresidential building, usually 39 years. The maximum allowable useful life under US income tax regulations is 40 years. Though the IRS does allow a small choice of permutations for depreciation life and acceleration, it does not allow a taxpayer to invent any arbitrary asset life. Other countries have other systems, many simply eliminate all choice altogether. In these jurisdictions accounting depreciation and tax depreciation are almost always significantly different numbers, as in many instances a form of “accelerated depreciation” can be used for tax purposes to lower (taxable) net income in a given period (or, in some instances, a fixed asset may be allowed to be expensed for tax purposes; Section 179 of the Internal Revenue Code allows for this treatment in some circumstances). Technically, these are not considered “tax reductions” but tax deferrals: lowering taxable income now by increasing expenses should increase future taxable income (and taxes) at a later date.

Importantly, no depreciation deduction is allowed for inventories or other property held for sale to customers in the ordinary course of business (Treas. Reg. § 1.167(a)-2 and Thor Power Tool Company v. Commissioner). Land is also not depreciable (Treas. Reg. § 1.167(a)-2). However, improvements to land, including landscaping, are usually depreciable.

In the US, there are generally five variables that a taxpayer must take into account when computing the correct depreciation deduction:

1. the depreciation base (the asset’s cost basis),
2. the asset’s class life (estimated life expectancy of the asset),
3. the applicable recovery period (the number of years the taxpayer can claim depreciation deductions),
4. the applicable depreciation method (see double declining balance method or straight-line method), and
5. the applicable convention (§ 168(d)(4) of the code—generally the half-year convention).

Economics

In economics, the value of a capital asset is equal to the present value of the flow of services the asset will generate in future, appropriately adjusted for uncertainty. Economic depreciation over a given period is the reduction in the remaining value of future services.

Under certain circumstances, such as an unanticipated increase in the price of the services generated by an asset, its value may increase rather than decline. Depreciation is then negative.

National accounts

In national accounts, depreciation represents the decline in the aggregate capital stock arising from the use of capital in production, also referred to as consumption of fixed capital. Hence, depreciation is equal to the difference between aggregate (gross) investment and net investment or between Gross National Product and Net National Product. Unlike depreciation in business accounting, depreciation in national accounts is, in principle, not a method of allocating the costs of past expenditures on fixed assets over subsequent accounting periods. Rather, fixed assets at a given moment in time are valued according to the remaining benefits to be derived from their use.
Earnings per share: Earnings per share (EPS) are the earnings returned on the initial investment amount.

In the US, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) requires companies’ income statements to report EPS for each of the major categories of the income statement: continuing operations, discontinued operations, extraordinary items, and net income.

Calculating EPS

The EPS formula does not include preferred dividends for categories outside of continued operations and net income. Earnings per share for continuing operations and net income are more complicated in that any preferred dividends are removed from net income before calculating EPS. Remember that preferred stock rights have precedence over common stock. If preferred dividends total $100,000, then that is money not available to distribute to each share of common stock.

Earnings Per Share (Basic Formula)

Earnings Per Share (Net Income Formula)

Earnings Per Share (Continuing Operations Formula)

Only preferred dividends actually declared in the current year are subtracted. The exception is when preferred shares are cumulative, in which case annual dividends are deducted regardless of whether they have been declared or not. Dividends in arrears are not relevant when calculating EPS. EPR=N.P A.T OR P.D devided by number of equity share.
ECN: An electronic communication network (ECN) is the term used in financial circles for a type of computer system that facilitates trading of financial products outside of stock exchanges. The primary products that are traded on ECNs are stocks and currencies. ECNs came into existence in 1998 when the SEC authorized their creation. ECNs increase competition among trading firms by lowering transaction costs, giving clients full access to their order books, and offering order matching outside of traditional exchange hours.

ECNs are alternative trading systems that have sufficient volume in nongovernment securities and commercial paper that they must be registered with the SEC. An ECN may register with the SEC as either a broker/dealer or an exchange.

ECNs registered as broker/dealers must comply with Regulation ATS, which includes a requirement to link to a registered exchange or the NASD and publicly display their best priced orders for any security in which they have had 5% or more of the average daily volume share in the past four out of six calendar months. ECNs registered as exchanges must comply with exchange requirements for self-regulation.

ECNs registered as exchanges include Archipelago, Attain, Island, and REDIBook. ECNs registered as broker/dealers include B-Trade, BRUT, Instinet, NexTrade, and Strike. POSIT Crossing Network is registered as a broker, but is not considered an ECN because of its low volume. POSIT is a call market that matches sell and purchase orders six times a day, creating a single trade at the midpoint each time.
Electronic trading: Electronic trading, sometimes called etrading, is a method of trading securities (such as stocks, and bonds), foreign currency, and exchange traded derivatives electronically. It uses information technology to bring together buyers and sellers through electronic media to create a virtual market place. NASDAQ, NYSE Arca and Globex are examples of electronic market places. Exchanges that facilitate electronic trading in the United States are regulated by either the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and are generally called electronic communications networks or ECNs.

Etrading is widely believed to be more reliable than older methods of trade processing, but glitches and cancelled trades do occur.

Background

Historically, stock markets were physical locations where buyers and sellers met and negotiated. With the improvement in communications technology in the late 20th century, the need for a physical location became less important, as traders could transact from remote locations.

One of the earliest examples of widespread electronic trading was on Globex, the CME Group’s electronic trading platform that allows access to a variety of financial, foreign exchange and commodity markets. The Chicago Board Of Trade produced a rival system that was based on Oak Trading Systems’ Oak platform which facilitated ‘E Open Outcry,’ an electronic trading platform that allowed for electronic trading to take place alongside the trading that took place in the CBOT pits. Oak Trading Systems continues to offer access to global markets via various software applications, including demo packages, and products are available through reputable brokerage firms such as EHedger LLC.

Electronic trading makes transactions easier to complete, monitor, clear, and settle. NASDAQ, set up in 1971, was the world’s first electronic stock market, though it originally operated as an electronic bulletin board, rather than offering straight through processing (STP). By early 2007, organizations like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were creating electronic trading platforms to support the emerging interest in trading within the foreign exchange market.

Today many investment firms on both the buy side and sell side are increasing their spending on technology for electronic trading.  Many floor traders and brokers are being removed from the trading process. Traders are relying on algorithms to analyze market conditions and then execute their orders.

Dates of introduction of electronic trading by leading exchange in 120 countries is provided in a Journal of Finance article published in 2005 “Financial market design and the equity premium: Electronic vs. floor trading,”. Leading academic research in this field is conducted by Professor Ian Domowitz and Professor Pankaj Jain.

There are, broadly, two types of trading in the financial markets:

• Business-to-business (B2B) trading, often conducted on exchanges, where large investment banks and brokers trade directly with one another, transacting large amounts of securities, and
• Business-to-client (B2C) trading, where retail (e.g. individuals buying and selling relatively small amounts of stocks and shares) and institutional clients (e.g. hedge funds, fund managers or insurance companies, trading far larger amounts of securities) buy and sell from brokers or “dealers”, who act as middle-men between the clients and the B2B markets.

While the majority of retail trading probably now happens over the Internet, retail trading volumes are dwarfed by institutional, inter-dealer and exchange trading.

Before the advent of eTrading, exchange trading would typically happen on the floor of an exchange, where traders in brightly colored jackets (to identify which firm they worked for) would shout and gesticulate at one another – a process known as open outcry or “pit trading” (the exchange floors were often pit-shaped – circular, sloping downwards to the centre, so that the traders could see one another).

For instruments which aren’t exchange-traded (e.g. U.S. treasury bonds), the inter-dealer market substitutes for the exchange. This is where dealers trade directly with one another or through inter-dealer brokers (i.e. companies like GFI Group, BGC Partners and Garban, who act as middle-men between dealers such as investment banks). This type of trading traditionally took place over the phone but brokers are beginning to offer eTrading services.

Similarly, B2C trading traditionally happened over the phone and, while much of it still does, more brokers are allowing their clients to place orders using electronic systems. Many retail (or “discount”) brokers (e.g. Charles Schwab, E-Trade) went online during the late 1990s and most retail stock-broking probably takes place over the web now.

Larger institutional clients, however, will generally place electronic orders via proprietary ECNs such as Bloomberg or TradeWeb (which connect institutional clients to several dealers), or using their brokers’ proprietary software.

Impact

The increase of eTrading has had some important implications:

• Reduced cost of transactions – By automating as much of the process as possible (often referred to as “straight-through processing” or STP), costs are brought down. The goal is to reduce the incremental cost of trades as close to zero as possible, so that increased trading volumes don’t lead to significantly increased costs. This has translated to lower costs for investors.
• Greater liquidity – electronic systems make it easier to allow different companies to trade with one another, no matter where they are located. This leads to greater liquidity (i.e. there are more buyers and sellers) which increases the efficiency of the markets.
• Greater competition – While etrading hasn’t necessarily lowered the cost of entry to the financial services industry, it has removed barriers within the industry and had a globalization-style competition effect. For example, a trader can trade futures on Eurex, Globex or LIFFE at the click of a button – he or she doesn’t need to go through a broker or pass orders to a trader on the exchange floor.
• Increased transparency – Etrading has meant that the markets are less opaque. It’s easier to find out the price of securities when that information is flowing around the world electronically.
• Tighter spreads – The “spread” on an instrument is the difference between the best buying and selling prices being quoted; it represents the profit being made by the market makers. The increased liquidity, competition and transparency means that spreads have tightened, especially for commoditized, exchange-traded instruments.

For retail investors, financial services on the web offer great benefits. The primary benefit is the reduced cost of transactions for all concerned as well as the ease and the convenience. Web-driven financial transactions bypass traditional hurdles such as logistics.

Technology and systems

Etrading systems are typically proprietary software (etrading platforms), running on COTS hardware and operating systems, often using common underlying protocols, such as TCP/IP and ASCII.

Exchanges typically develop their own systems (sometimes referred to as matching engines), although sometimes an exchange will use another exchange’s technology (e.g. e-cbot, the Chicago Board of Trade‘s electronic trading platform, uses LIFFE‘s Connect system), and some newer electronic exchanges use 3rd-party specialist software providers (e.g. the Budapest stock exchange and the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange use automated trading software originally written and implemented by FMSC, an Australian technology company that was acquired by Computershare, and whose intellectual property rights are now owned by OMX.

Exchanges and ECNs generally offer two methods of accessing their systems -

• an exchange-provided GUI, which the trader runs on his or her desktop and connects directly to the exchange/ECN, and
• an API which allows dealers to plug their own in-house systems directly into the exchange/ECN’s.

From an infrastructure point of view, most exchanges will provide “gateways” which sit on a companies’ network, acting in a manner similar to a proxy, connecting back to the exchange’s central system.

ECNs will generally forego the gateway/proxy, and their GUI or the API will connect directly to a central system, across a leased line.

Many brokers develop their own systems, although there are some third-party solutions providers specializing in this area. Like ECNs, brokers will often offer both a GUI and an API (although it’s likely that a slightly smaller proportion of brokers offer an API, as compared with ECNs), and connectivity is typically direct to the broker’s systems, rather than through a gateway.

Investment banks and other dealers have far more complex technology requirements, as they have to interface with multiple exchanges, brokers and multi-dealer platforms, as well as their own pricing, P&L, trade processing and position-keeping systems. Some banks will develop their own etrading systems in-house, but this can be costly, especially when they need to connect to many exchanges, ECNs and brokers. There are a number of companies who offer solutions in this area.
Equity: Equity, in finance and accounting, is the residual claim or interest of the most junior class of investors in an asset, after all liabilities are paid. If valuations placed on assets do not exceed liabilities, negative equity exists. In an accounting context,

Shareholders’ equity (or stockholders’ equity, shareholders’ funds, shareholders’ capital or similar terms) represents the remaining interest in assets of a company, spread among individual shareholders of common or preferred stock.

At the start of a business, owners put some funding into the business to finance assets. Businesses can be considered to be, for accounting purposes, sums of liabilities and assets; this is the accounting equation. After liabilities have been accounted for, the positive remainder is deemed the owner’s interest in the business.

This definition is helpful put into receivership or bankruptcy. Then, a series of creditors, ranked in priority sequence, have the first claim on the proceeds (e.g. asset sales), and ownership equity is the last or residual claim against assets, paid only after all other creditors are paid. In such a case, creditors may not get enough money to pay their bills, and nothing is left over to reimburse owners’ equity. Thus owners’ equity is reduced to zero. Ownership equity is also known as risk capital, liable capital and equity.

Exercise price or strike price: In options, the strike price, or exercise price, is a key variable in a derivatives contract between two parties. Where the contract requires delivery of the underlying instrument, the trade will be at the strike price, regardless of the spot price (market price) of the underlying instrument at that time.

Definition – The fixed price at which the owner of an option can purchase, in the case of a call, or sell, in the case of a put, the underlying security or commodity. It’s the price at which the stock will be bought or sold when the option is exercised.

The strike price is often called the exercise price.

For example, an IBM May 50 Call has a strike/exercise price of $50 a share. When the option is exercised the owner of the option will buy (Call option) 100 shares of IBM stock for $50 a share.
Exchanges: An exchange (or bourse) is a highly organized market where (especially) tradable securities, commodities, foreign exchange, futures, and options contracts are sold and bought. Exchanges bring together brokers and dealers who buy and sell these objects.

Exchanges can be subdivided:

• by objects sold:
  • stock exchange or securities exchange
  • commodity exchange
  • foreign exchange market – is rare today in the form of a specialized institution
• by type of trade:
  • classical exchange – for spot trades
  • futures exchange or futures and options exchange – for derivatives

In practice, futures exchanges are usually commodity exchanges, i.e. all derivatives, including financial derivatives, are usually traded at commodity exchanges. This has historical reasons: The first exchanges were stock exchanges. In the 19th century, exchanges were opened to trade forward contracts on commodities. Exchange traded forward contracts are called futures contracts. These commodity exchanges later started offering future contracts on other products, such as interest rates and shares, as well as options contracts. They are now generally known as futures exchanges.

For details see:

• stock exchange (securities exchange), List of stock exchanges,Category:Stock exchanges
• commodity exchange (futures exchange), List of futures exchanges, Category:Futures exchanges
• foreign exchange market