Dictionary (E-H)

Term

Abbreviations

Definition

Labels

Synonyms

EBA: European Banking Authority

EBA

An independent EU authority established on 1 January 2011 as part of the European System of Financial Supervision to ensure effective and consistent prudential regulation and supervision across the EU banking sector. Its main task is to contribute to the creation of the European single rulebook in banking, the objective of which is to provide a single set of harmonised prudential rules throughout the EU.

fin, gen

EBA, European Banking Authority

ECB: European Central Bank

ECB

The ECB was established on 1 June 1998 in Frankfurt am Main as the body at the centre of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) and the Eurosystem. Together with the national central banks of the EU Member States whose currency is the euro, the ECB defines and implements the monetary policy for the euro area. Since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009, the ECB has been an EU institution.

fin, gen

ECB, European Central Bank

eCommerce

The sale or purchase of goods or services through electronic transactions conducted via the internet or other computer-mediated networks.

fin

eCommerce, e-commerce, Electronic Commerce

ECU: European Currency Unit

ECU

Prior to Stage Three of EMU, the ECU was a basket currency made up of the sum of fixed amounts of 12 out of the then 15 currencies of the EU Member States. The value of the ECU was calculated as a weighted average of the value of its component currencies. The ECU was replaced by the euro on a one-for-one basis on 1 January 1999.

fin, gen

ECU, European Currency Unit

EDD: Enhanced Due Diligence

EDD

Enhanced Due Diligence is a set of measures applied in situations that indicate a higher risk of money laundering and terrorist financing. Enhanced Due Diligence is a complex process that should be designed to mitigate the money laundering risks specific to a given organization.

aml

EDD, Enhanced Due Diligence

EDD: Enhanced Due Diligence

EDD

Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) is a set of measures applied in situations that indicate a higher risk of money laundering and terrorist financing. Enhanced Due Diligence is a complex process that should be designed to mitigate the money laundering risks specific to a given organization.

aml

EDD, Enhanced Due Diligence

EDI: Electronic Data Interchange

EDI

The exchange between commercial entities (in some cases also public administrations), in a standardised electronic format, of data relating to a number of message categories, such as orders, invoices, customs documents, remittance advices and payments. EDI messages are sent through public data transmission networks or banking system channels. Any movement of funds initiated by EDI is reflected in payment instructions flowing through the banking system. UN/CEFACT, a United Nations body, has established a set of standards relating to electronic data interchange for administration, commerce and transport (EDIFACT).

tech

EDI, Electronic Data Interchange

EEA: European Economic Area

EEA

A free-trade area encompassing EU Member States and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

fin, gen

EEA, European Economic Area

EFC: Economic and Financial Committee

EFC

A consultative EU body set up at the start of Stage Three of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The Member States, the European Commission and the ECB each appoint no more than two members of the Committee. Each Member State selects one member from among the senior officials of its national administration, and the second member from among the senior officials of its national central bank. However, the national central bank members only participate in EFC meetings when issues of their institution's particular expertise or competence are being discussed. Article 134(2) of the TFEU contains a list of the tasks of the Economic and Financial Committee.

fin

EFC, Economic and Financial Committee

EFT: Electronic Funds Transfer

EFT

An electronic funds transfer (EFT), also known as a direct deposit, is the digital transfer of money between bank accounts. As digital transfers, they reduce the need for manual input and paper documents.

fin

EFT, Electronic Funds Transfer, Direct Deposit

EFTA: European Free Trade Association

EFTA

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of 4 European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The organization operates in parallel with the European Union (EU), and all 4 member states participate in the European single market and are part of the Schengen Area. They are not, however, party to the European Union Customs Union. EFTA was historically one of the 2 dominant western European trade blocs, but is now much smaller and closely associated with its historical competitor, the European Union. It was established on 3 May 1960 to serve as an alternative trade bloc for those European states that were unable or unwilling to join the then European Economic Community (EEC), the main predecessor of the EU. The Stockholm Convention (1960), to establish the EFTA, was signed on 4 January 1960 in the Swedish capital by 7 countries (known as the \"Outer Seven\": Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). A revised Convention, the Vaduz Convention, was signed on 21 June 2001 and entered into force on 1 June 2002. After 1995 only 2 founding members remained, namely Norway and Switzerland. The other five, Austria, Denmark, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom, had joined the EU at some point in the intervening years. The initial Stockholm Convention was superseded by the Vaduz Convention, which aimed to provide a successful framework for continuing the expansion and liberalisation of trade, both among the organization's member states and with the rest of the world. While the EFTA is not a customs union and member states have full rights to enter into bilateral third-country trade arrangements, it does have a coordinated trade policy. As a result, its member states have jointly concluded free trade agreements with the EU and a number of other countries. To participate in the EU's single market, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway are parties to the Agreement on a European Economic Area (EEA), with compliances regulated by the EFTA Surveillance Authority and the EFTA Court.

fin, gen

EFTA, European Free Trade Association

eKYC: Electronic Know Your Customer

eKYC

electronic Know Your Customer is an expression used to describe digital KYC processes. eKYC is the remote, paperless process that minimises the costs and traditional bureaucracy necessary in KYC processes.

aml

Electronic Know Your Customer, Electronic Know Your Client, eKYC

Electronic Money Agent

A third-party entity appointed by an Electronic Money Institution to distribute or redeem eMoney on its behalf.

fin, legal

Electronic Money Agent, eMoney Agent

Electronic payment instrument

A personalised device (or a set of devices), software and/or set of procedures agreed between the end user and the payment service provider to request the execution of an electronic transfer of value.

fin, tech

Embargo

An official government action to ban trade or commercial activity with a specific country, sometimes involving a specific trade product (e.g., a grain embargo or an oil embargo).

aml

Embezzlement

The unlawful act of taking or misappropriating funds entrusted by an employer or organisation for one's own use.

aml, legal

EMD / EMD2: Electronic Money Directive

EMD,EMD2

The Directive (EU) 2009/110/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 September 2009 on the taking up, pursuit and prudential supervision of the business of Electronic Money Institutions amending Directives 2005/60/EC & 2006/48/EC and repealing Directive 2000/46/EC. The EMD2 is an updated version of the EMD, which further regulates Electronic Money Institutions and Digital Payment Services.

fin, legal

EMD, Electronic Money Directive, eMoney Directive, EMD2

EMI License

A license granted by regulatory authorities to an institution to operate as an Electronic Money Institution.

fin, legal

EMI: Electronic Money Institution

EMI,ELMI

A term used in EU legislation to designate credit institutions which are governed by a simplified regulatory regime because their activity is limited to the issuance of electronic money and the provision of financial and non-financial services closely related to the issuance of electronic money.

fin

EMI, ELMI, Electronic Money Institution

EMI: European Monetary Institute

EMI

A temporary EU body established on 1 January 1994 to strengthen central bank cooperation and monetary policy coordination in Stage Two of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and to carry out the preparations required for the establishment of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), for the conduct of the single monetary policy and for the introduction of a single currency in Stage Three. It was replaced by the ECB on 1 June 1998.

fin, gen

EMI, European Monetary Institute

eMoney

A monetary value, represented by a claim on the issuer, which is: 1) stored on an electronic device (e.g. a card or computer); 2) issued upon receipt of funds in an amount not less in value than the monetary value received; and 3) accepted as a means of payment by undertakings other than the issuer.

fin

eMoney, e-money

EMS: European Monetary System

EMS

An exchange rate regime established in 1979 to foster closer monetary policy cooperation between the central banks of the Member States of the European Economic Community (EEC) so as to lead to a zone of monetary stability in Europe. The main components of the EMS were the ECU (a basket currency made up of the sum of fixed amounts of currencies of EEC Member States), the exchange rate and intervention mechanism (ERM) and various credit mechanisms. It was replaced by ERM II (exchange rate mechanism II) at the start of Stage Three of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) on 1 January 1999.

fin, gen

EMS, European Monetary System

EMU: European Economic & Monetary Union

EMU

The outcome of the process laid down in the Treaty establishing the European Community for harmonisation by EU Member States of economic and monetary policies and for introduction of the euro. Three stages were provided for: Stage One (1 July 1990 to 31 December 1993), removal of barriers to free movement of capital within the EU, better coordination of economic policies and closer cooperation between central banks, Stage Two (1 January 1994 to 31 December 1998), establishment of the European Monetary Institute (EMI) followed by preparations for introduction of the euro, avoidance of excessive deficits and enhanced convergence of policies (to ensure stable prices and sound public finances). Stage Three (from 1 January 1999) began with irrevocable fixing of exchange rates, transfer of monetary competence to the ECB and the introduction of the euro. The TFEU no longer refers to the three stages of EMU, as this progressive terminology is outdated.

fin, gen

EMU, European Economic & Monetary Union

Encapsulation

In software systems, encapsulation refers to the bundling of data with the mechanisms or methods that operate on the data. It may also refer to the limiting of direct access to some of that data, such as an object's components. Essentially, encapsulation prevents external code from being concerned with the internal workings of an object. Encapsulation allows developers to present a consistent interface that is independent of its internal implementation. As one example, encapsulation can be used to hide the values or state of a structured data object inside a class. This prevents clients from directly accessing this information in a way that could expose hidden implementation details or violate state invariance maintained by the methods. Encapsulation also encourages programmers to put all the code that is concerned with a certain set of data in the same class, which organises it for easy comprehension by other programmers. Encapsulation is a technique that encourages decoupling. All object-oriented programming (OOP) systems support encapsulation, but encapsulation is not unique to OOP. Implementations of abstract data types, modules & libraries also offer encapsulation. The similarity has been explained by programming language theorists in terms of existential types.

tech

Encoding

Encoding is a system that translates between a character system that can represents the components used in written language and a digital representation that the computer can store and operate on. Different encoding systems have been developed with a wide variety of character ranges. Some are targeted at specific languages or language families (like ASCII) while others attempt to provide representation for much larger character sets appropriate for different many languages (like the UTF unicode varieties).

tech

Endpoint

Refers to the point of entry in a communication channel when two systems are interacting. It refers to touch points of the communication between an API and a server.

tech

EPC: European Payments Council

EPC

The European Payments Council (EPC) is a not-for-profit organization that standardizes payments in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Through credit transfer, direct debit, card, and mobile payment schemas, the EPC aims to integrate electronic payments across Europe.

fin, gen

EPC, European Payments Council

Ephemerality

Ephemerality is a characteristic that indicates that a piece of data is not permanent. In many ways, it is the opposite of durability. In databases, certain items, like data you wish to persist, should not be ephemeral. However, other components, like a secret key used to encrypt a connection between a database and client, can benefit from being ephemeral by preventing key leakage from effecting future or past sessions.

tech

Equity

All instruments and records acknowledging claims on the residual value of a corporation or quasi-corporation after the claims of all creditors have been met. Equity comprises equity securities and other financial instruments not classified as securities.

fin

ERM: Exchange Rate Mechanism

ERM

The European Exchange Rate Mechanism was set up in order to stabilise exchange rates and help Europe to become an area of monetary stability before the introduction of the single currency, the Euro. After the Euro’s introduction on 1 January 1999, the original ERM was replaced by ERM II (Exchange rate mechanism II) at the start of Stage Three of Economic & Monetary Union (EMU). This began with the irrevocable and definitive fixing of exchange rates, the transfer of monetary competence to the European Central Bank (ECB), and the introduction of the euro as the single currency. ERM II provides a framework for exchange rate policy co-operation between the Eurosystem (the central banking system of the Euro area) and the European Union (EU) Member States that are preparing to adopt the Euro.

fin, gen

ERM, Exchange Rate Mechanism

ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning

ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software can integrate all of the processes needed to run a company. ERP solutions have evolved over the years, and many are now typically web-based applications that users can access remotely. Some benefits of ERP include the free flow of communication between business areas, a single source of information, and accurate, real-time data reporting. An ERP system can be ineffective if a company does not implement it carefully. So, an ERP refers to a process used by companies to manage and integrate the important parts of their businesses, via software, to connect planning, purchasing inventory, sales, marketing, finance, human resources, and more.

tech

ERP, Enterprise Resource Planning

Escrow

Escrow refers to a financial agreement where a neutral third party holds assets or funds before they are transferred from one party in a transaction to another. The third party holds the funds until both the buyer and the seller have fulfilled their contractual requirements. Escrow accounts are managed by an escrow agent. Money, securities, funds, and other assets can all be held in escrow.

fin

ESM: European Stability Mechanism

ESM

An intergovernmental organisation established by the euro area countries on the basis of the Treaty establishing the European Stability Mechanism. It is a permanent crisis management mechanism for the euro area which issues debt instruments in order to finance loans and other forms of financial assistance to euro area countries. The ESM entered into force on 8 October 2012 and replaced both the European Financial Stability Facility and the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism. ESM lending is subject to strict conditionality.

gen

ESM, European Stability Mechanism

ESMA: European Securities and Markets Authority

ESMA

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is an independent EU authority whose purpose is to improve investor protection and promote stable, orderly financial markets.

gen

ESMA, European Securities and Markets Authority

ETL: Extract, Transform & Load

ETL

Extract, transform, load is a 3-phase computing process where data is extracted from an input source, transformed (including cleaning), and loaded into an output data container. The data can be collected from one or more sources and it can also be output to one or more destinations. ETL processing is typically executed using software applications but it can also be done manually by system operators. ETL software typically automates the entire process and can be run manually or on recurring schedules either as single jobs or aggregated into a batch of jobs.

tech

ETL, Extract, Transform & Load

EU: European Union

EU

The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The EU is often described as a sui generis political entity combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.

gen

EU, European Union

Eurogroup

An informal gathering of the ministers of economics and finance of the euro area member countries, at which they discuss issues connected with their shared responsibilities in respect of the single currency. The European Commission and the ECB are invited to take part in the meetings. The Eurogroup usually meets immediately before an Ecofin Council meeting.

fin, gen

European Commission

The EU institution established in 1967 (for the then three European Communities) that drafts proposals for new EU legislation (which it presents to the European Parliament and the EU Council for adoption), makes sure that EU decisions are properly implemented and supervises the way EU funds are spent. Together with the Court of Justice of the European Union, it ensures that legislation applying to all EU Member States is properly implemented and that the provisions of the TFEU are applied in full.

gen

European Council

An EU institution that brings together the Heads of State or Government of the EU Member States, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission to provide the European Union with the necessary impetus for its development and to define the general political guidelines thereof.

gen

European Parliament

An EU institution that currently consists of 705 directly elected representatives of the citizens of the Member States. It plays a role in the EU's legislative process, although with differing prerogatives that depend on the procedures through which the respective EU legislation is to be enacted. Where monetary policy and the ESCB are concerned, the powers of the European Parliament are mainly consultative in character, although the TFEU provides for certain procedures with respect to the democratic accountability of the ECB vis-à-vis the Parliament (presentation of the ECB's Annual Report, including a general debate on monetary policy, and hearings before the competent parliamentary committees).

gen

Europol

Europol is the EU’s law enforcement agency. Its main goal is to help achieve a safer Europe for the benefit of all EU citizens. In the area of anti-money laundering, Europol provides member states’ law enforcement authorities with operational and analytical support via the Europol liaison officers (ELOs) and its analysts, as well as state-of-the-art databases and communication channels.

aml, gen

Eurostat

The Statistical Office of the European Union. It is part of the European Commission and responsible for the production of Union statistics.

stats, gen

Eurosystem

The central banking system of the euro area. It comprises the ECB and the national central banks of those EU Member States whose currency is the euro.

gen

Eurozone

The area formed by the EU Member States whose currency is the euro and in which a single monetary policy is conducted under the responsibility of the Governing Council of the ECB. The euro area currently comprises Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

fin, gen

Eurozone, Euro Zone, Euro Area

eWallet

A service that enables end users to initiate transfers of value by storing secure information related to the electronic payment instruments required to initiate the transfers. It can also be used to register and hold personalised security credentials. Depending on its design, a wallet can be used, before or during a payment process, to fund a payer account linked to the wallet and offered by the wallet provider with funds or digital payment tokens. It can also provide the payee with information related to the payment instrument without being linked to such an account.

fin

eWallet, e-wallet, Digital Wallet, Mobile Wallet

Execution

Execution refers to where a buyer and seller enter into legally binding agreement to transfer securities from a seller to a buyer in exchange for money from a buyer to a seller.

fin

Expense

An expense is the cost incurred in order to generate revenue or obtain something. An alternative definition is that an expense is the reduction in value of an asset as it is used to generate revenue. If the underlying asset is to be used over a long period of time, the expense takes the form of depreciation, and is charged ratably over the useful life of the asset. If the expense is for an immediately consumed item, such as a salary, then it is usually charged to expense as incurred.

fin

Exposure

The loss that would be incurred if a certain risk materialised. See also bilateral exposure .

fin

External APIs

An API that is designed to be accessed by the outside public. Unlike internal APIs, APIs are consumed by external developers outside of the company. External APIs represent a secure way of sharing data and content outside a company.

tech

Extrapolation

Extrapolation is the process of estimating a value outside a known range of data points by extending a trend or pattern observed in that data. It is essentially predicting future or unknown values based on existing data, like forecasting sales based on past sales figures or predicting population growth. While useful, extrapolation can be risky as it relies on the assumption that the identified trend will continue consistently beyond the observed data.

stats, fin

F-Test

A statistical test that compares variances. It is used to determine if the variances of two samples, or if the ratios of variances among multiple samples, are significantly different. The F-Test is commonly used in Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), regression analysis, and for comparing the equality of variances between populations.

stats

Facilitation

Actions taken by one person to assist or support another person in engaging in activity. Within a sanctions context, facilitation means when one person (person A) who is not allowed to engage in an activity either directly or indirectly assists or supports another person (person B) to engage in that activity. The activity does not necessarily need to be prohibited for person B, but only for person A.

aml

False Negative

Either: a hit that is identified during the screening process as a possible alert, but is dismissed, when in fact there is a match to a target named on a sanctions list; or screened activity that would have generated a hit if the screening process had been calibrated to catch such activity, such as a target match that is unidentified because thresholds are too high.

aml

False Positive

A hit identified during the screening process as a possible alert, but when reviewed, is found not to be a match to a target named on a sanctions list.

aml

FATF: Financial Action Task Force

FATF

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an intergovernmental agency that develops and supports policies to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. FATF establishes worldwide standards for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) and analyses nations' progress towards compliance.

aml

FI: Financial Institution

FI

A Financial Institution is a company involved in financial and monetary transactions such as deposits, loans, investments, insurance, brokerages, and investment dealers.

fin

FI, Financial Institution

Fiat

Fiat money is a government-issued currency that's not backed by a physical commodity such as gold or silver. It's backed by the government that issues it. The value of fiat money is derived from the relationship between supply and demand and the stability of the issuing government rather than the worth of a commodity backing it. Most modern paper currencies are fiat currencies, including the United States Dollar, the Euro, and other major global currencies.

fin

Field

A table consists of several records (i.e., rows). Each record can be broken down into several smaller entities known as fields.

tech

FIFO: First In First Out

FIFO

First In First Out, in computer science, a method for organising the manipulation of a data structure where the oldest entry is processed first.

tech

FIFO, First In First Out

Final settlement

A settlement or transfer is final when it is unconditional, enforceable and irrevocable, even in the framework of insolvency proceedings opened against a participant (except in the case of criminal offences or fraudulent acts, as determined by a competent court). In the European context, a distinction is made between: the enforceability of a transfer order which is binding on third parties and protected from insolvency risks, provided that the transfer order was entered in the relevant system, in accordance with the rules of that system, prior to the opening of insolvency proceedings (with transfer orders entered in a system following the opening of insolvency proceedings being legally enforceable only in exceptional circumstances); and the irrevocability of a transfer order which cannot be revoked by the participants as of the point in time laid down in the rules of that system. Finality of transfer order is distinguished from finality of transfer, when entitlement is legally transferred to a receiver.

fin

final settlement, final transfer

Financial asset

Any asset that is (i) cash; or (ii) a contractual right to receive cash or another financial instrument from another enterprise; or (iii) a contractual right to exchange financial instruments with another enterprise under conditions that are potentially favourable; or (iv) an equity instrument of another enterprise.

fin

Financial liability

Any liability that is a legal obligation to deliver cash or another financial instrument to another enterprise or to exchange financial instruments with another enterprise under conditions that are potentially unfavourable.

fin

Financial Technology

Financial Technology refers to the integration of technology into offerings by financial services companies to improve their use and delivery to consumers. Companies in the finance industry that use Financial Technology have expanded financial inclusion and use technology to cut down on operational costs.

fin

Fintech, Financial Technology

FinOps

FinOps is an ISX system that caters for reporting, notifications & other functions.

product

Flow

The creation, transformation, exchange, transfer or extinction of economic value involving a change in the ownership of goods and/or financial assets, the provision of services or the provision of labour and capital. Flows can be calculated as differences in stocks adjusted to remove the effect of reclassifications, exchange rate variations, other revaluations and any other changes that do not arise from transactions.

fin

flykk

flykk is an e-money payment platform that allows instant & seamless e-money transfers between merchants & consumers.

product

FOREX / FX: Foreign Exchange

FOREX,FX

FOREX, a portmanteau of foreign and exchange, is where banks, businesses, governments, investors, and individuals buy or sell currencies. Whenever you purchase something in another currency or exchange cash to get the local money of your vacation destination, you’re taking part in the FOREX or foreign exchange (FX) market. Businesses and individuals often do this while investors trade currencies to profit from fluctuating exchange rates. FOREX is the largest financial market, operating 24 hours across major financial centres. Currencies are traded in pairs, with pricing influenced by various economic factors. Different types of FOREX trades include spot, forward, and futures contracts. Trading FOREX involves choosing a broker, understanding leverage, and executing trades. FOREX trading carries risks such as leverage and market volatility, but also offers liquidity and flexibility.

fin

FOREX, FX, Foreign Exchange

Four-party card scheme

A card scheme where the stakeholders involved are: the issuer; the acquirer; the cardholder; and the card acceptor. In the case of automated teller machine (ATM) transactions, it is usually the acquirer that offers its services via the ATM. By contrast, in a three-party card scheme , the issuer and the acquirer are always the same entity. See also three-party card scheme .

fin

four-party card scheme, 4-party card scheme

FPS: Faster Payments System

FPS

Faster Payments System is a UK banking initiative to reduce payment times between different banks' customer accounts to typically a few seconds, from 3 working days that transfers take using the long-established BACS. CHAPS provides limited faster-than-BACS service (by close of business day) for 'high value' transactions, while FPS is focused on much larger number of smaller payments, subject to limits set by individual banks. Transfer time, while expected to be short, is not guaranteed, nor is it guaranteed that a receiving institution will immediately credit a payee's account. As of May 2018, there were 21 direct participants. For smaller organisations such as building societies & savings institutions, FPS is available through agency arrangements with a direct participant. No retail bank currently charges personal customers for this service (with non-guaranteed transfer time).

fin

FPS, Faster Payments System

Framework

Contains libraries of code, instructions, and APIs from which developers and API consumers can obtain data from an application.

tech

Fraud Detection

Systems for identifying and preventing fraudulent activity.

aml

Frontex

Frontex supports EU and Schengen countries in all aspects related to border management, from support on the ground and fighting cross-border crime, aerial surveillance and collecting information, to help with return procedures, identifying new technologies and many others.

gen

FTP: File Transfer Protocol

FTP

File Transfer Protocol refers to a method of exchanging files from one computer to another.

tech

FTP, File Transfer Protocol

Function

A function is a reusable block of code that performs a specific task or calculation. Functions help organise code, improve modularity, and enable code reuse. They accept input parameters, perform operations, and may return a value.

tech

Function, Method, Subroutine

Functional programming languages

A functional programming language uses functions to perform tasks, treating everything like a math problem without changing values or states. It encourages writing predictable, maintainable code that is easy to understand by using pure functions & immutable data. It is often used for projects that need to handle massive volumes of data or run multiple tasks at once, as seen in data science, financial modelling & real-time distributed systems. Examples: Scala Erlang Haskell Elixir F# Use cases: Data science & data manipulation Mathematical computations Distributed systems

tech

Fund

A fund is a pool of money set aside for a specific purpose. The pool of money in a fund is often invested and professionally managed in order to generate returns for its investors. Some common types of funds include pension funds, insurance funds, foundations, and endowments. Funds are also used by individuals and families for personal financial matters, such as emergency funds and college funds. Retirement funds are a type of fund commonly offered as a benefit to employees.

fin

Funding

Even after all this, a merchant still has not been reimbursed for a card payment. Up to this point, a merchant has completed a purchase & may have already provided goods or services to a customer. However, the actual money is still in transit as part of the payment card transaction lifecycle. This is where an acquirer deposits funds into a merchant’s bank account, finally making money available to a merchant.

fin

Fuzzy Logic

A matching technique used by financial institutions to increase the effectiveness of the screening processes by overcoming problems such as flawed records and databases. Fuzzy logic is accomplished through algorithms that use \"degrees of similarity\" to determine the probability that two names are the same. Fuzzy logic can find matches in misspelled names, incomplete names, and names with different spellings but similar sounds or phonetics. In addition, fuzzy logic accepts different formats for date of birth and other inconsistencies. Although fuzzy logic increases the likelihood of identifying potential target matches, it can also increase the number of false positives.

tech

Gatekeeper

Gatekeepers are necessary in many industries. They are people or policies that act as go-betweens, controlling access from one point to another. They may refuse, control, or delay access to services or they may be used to oversee how work is being done and whether it meets certain standards.

aml

GC: Garbage Collection

GC

Garbage collection (GC) is a memory management feature in programming languages that helps reclaim memory that’s no longer in use by the program. This process ensures that memory is efficiently allocated and released, preventing memory leaks and improving overall performance. GC algorithms: • Reference Counting: counts references to objects to detect when they are no longer needed. • Mark-and-Sweep: marks objects as reachable or unreachable, then removes those that are not. • Generational GC: classifies objects by age and applies different collection strategies. • Concurrent and Parallel GC: minimises pauses by running GC concurrently with program execution. Why GC matters Without garbage collection, memory would fill up over time with unused objects, leading to slower performance and possible program crashes. GC helps optimise memory use, enabling programs to run more smoothly and efficiently.

tech

GC, Garbage Collection

GDP: Gross Domestic Product

GDP

A measure of economic activity, namely the value of an economy's total output of goods and services, less intermediate consumption, plus net taxes on products and imports, in a specified period. GDP can be broken down by output, expenditure or income components. The main expenditure aggregates that make up GDP are household final consumption, government final consumption, gross fixed capital formation, changes in inventories, and imports and exports of goods and services (including intra-euro area trade).

fin

GDP, Gross Domestic Product

GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, abbreviated to GDPR) is a European Union regulation on information privacy in the EU & EEA. GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law & human rights law, in particular Article 8(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. It also governs the transfer of personal data outside the EU & EEA. GDPR's goals are to enhance individuals' control & rights over their personal information & to simplify the regulations for international business. It supersedes the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC & simplifies the terminology. The European Parliament & Council of the European Union adopted GDPR on 14 April 2016, to become effective on 25 May 2018. As an EU regulation (instead of a directive), GDPR is directly applicable with force of law on its own without the need of transposition. However, it also provides flexibility for individual member states to modify (derogate from) some of its provisions.

gen, legal

GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation

General Ledger

A general ledger represents the record-keeping system for a company’s financial data, with debit & credit account records validated by a trial balance. It provides a record of each financial transaction that takes place during the life of an operating company & holds account information needed to prepare a company’s financial statements. Transaction data is segregated, by type, into accounts for assets, liabilities, owners’ equity, revenues & expenses. A general ledger is the foundation of a company’s double-entry accounting system. General ledger accounts encompass all the transaction data needed to produce the income statement, balance sheet & other financial reports. General ledger transactions are a summary of transactions made as journal entries to sub-ledger accounts

fin

GET Method

Refers to a method for requesting data from a specified resource using HTTP. A user can also use it to derive a specific variable from a group of variables.

tech

GLB: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

GLB

Federal legislation enacted in the United States to control the ways that financial institutions deal with the private information of individuals.

aml, legal

GLB, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

Go

Go is a high-level general purpose programming language that is statically typed and compiled. It is known for the simplicity of its syntax and the efficiency of development that it enables by the inclusion of a large standard library supplying many needs for common projects. It is syntactically similar to C, but also has memory safety, garbage collection, and structural typing.

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Go, Golang

Governance

Procedures through which the objectives of a legal entity are set, the means of achieving them are identified and the performance of the entity is measured. This refers, in particular, to the set of relationships between the entity’s owners, board of directors, management, users and regulators, as well as other stakeholders that influence these outcomes.

legal, gen

GraphQL

A query language that enables clients to define the structure of data. This means that developers can use GraphQL to ask for specific data and return that data from multiple sources.

tech

Graphs

Graphs are data structures that consist of a set of vertices (or nodes) connected by edges, allowing the representation of relationships between pairs of objects. They can be directed or undirected, weighted or unweighted, and are essential for modeling complex relationships in various applications, including social networks, transportation systems, and computer networks. The choice of graph representation can significantly impact the efficiency of algorithms and operations performed on them.

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Greedy algorithm

A greedy algorithm is any algorithm that follows the problem-solving heuristic of making the locally optimal choice at each stage. In many problems, a greedy strategy does not produce an optimal solution, but a greedy heuristic can yield locally optimal solutions that approximate a globally optimal solution in a reasonable amount of time.

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Grey Box Testing

Grey box testing is a combination of the black box testing technique and the white box testing technique in software testing. The grey box testing involves inputs and outputs of a program for the testing purpose but test design is tested by using the information about the code. Grey box testing is well suited for web application testing because it factors in a high-level design environment and the inter-operability conditions.

tech

Gridlock

A situation that can arise in a funds or securities transfer system in which a failure to execute one or more transfer orders prevents the execution of a substantial number of orders submitted by other participants.

fin

Gross settlement

The settlement of transfer orders one by one. See also net settlement.

fin

Guarantor

A guarantor is an individual who promises (i.e., guarantees) to pay a borrower's debt if a borrower defaults on their loan obligation. A guarantor guarantees a loan by pledging their assets as collateral. Unlike a co-signer, a guarantor has no claim to the asset purchased by the borrower. If the borrower defaults on their loan, then the guarantor is liable for the outstanding obligation, which they must meet, otherwise, legal action may be brought against them.

fin

Hash Function

A hash function is a function that takes a variable-length input and produces a fixed-length output, also called a digest (or just a 'hash'). Hash functions should be quick to compute, and different inputs should as far as possible produce different outputs (this is called collision-resistance). Hash functions have both cryptographic and non-cryptographic uses. Outside cryptography, for example, hash functions can be used to generate the keys for an associative array such as a map or a dictionary.

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Hawala

Hawala is an unofficial way of moving money without actually any physical movement of money. The concept of trust is very crucial for this method as it is simply described as “money transfer without money movement”. As an alternative transaction method to the traditional banking system, hawala is still a valid remittance channel for many. Hawala gains a footing in the digital financial world because it offers access to money transfers for the unbanked or underbanked people.

aml

HCE: Host Card Emulation

HCE

Host card emulation (HCE) is the software architecture that provides exact virtual representation of various electronic identity (access, transit and banking) cards using only software. HCE enables mobile applications running on supported operating systems to offer payment card and access card solutions independently of third parties while utilising cryptographic processes traditionally used by hardware-based secure elements without the need for a physical secure element. This technology enables merchants to offer payment cards solutions more easily through mobile closed-loop contactless payment solutions, offers real-time distribution of payment cards and allows for an easy deployment scenario that does not require changes to the software inside payment terminals.

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HCE, Host Card Emulation

HEAD Method

This is almost identical to GET, but without the response body. In other words, if GET /users returns a list of users, then HEAD /users will make the same request but will not return the list of users. HEAD requests are useful for checking what a GET request will return before actually making a GET request – like before downloading a large file or response body.

tech

Heap

A heap is a specialized tree-based data structure that satisfies the heap property, which states that in a max-heap, for any given node, the value of that node is greater than or equal to the values of its children, and in a min-heap, the value of the node is less than or equal to its children. Heaps are commonly used in priority queues and for efficient sorting algorithms like heapsort, making them a key element in various applications of tree data structures.

tech

HMAC: Hash-based Message Authentication Code

HMAC

(sometimes expanded as either Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code or Hash-based Message Authentication Code) In cryptography, is a specific type of MAC involving a cryptographic hash function and a secret cryptographic key. As with any MAC, it may be used to simultaneously verify both the data integrity and authenticity of a message. HMAC can provide authentication using a shared secret instead of using digital signatures with asymmetric cryptography. It trades off the need for a complex public key infrastructure by delegating the key exchange to the communicating parties, who are responsible for establishing and using a trusted channel to agree on the key prior to communication.

tech

Hash-based Message Authentication Code, Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code, HMAC Secret Key, HMAC

Holding Company

A holding company is business entity-usually a corporation or limited liability company (LLC). Typically, a holding company doesn't manufacture anything, sell any products or services, or conduct any other business operations. A holding company controls subsidiary firms through majority stock ownership. Holding companies own and control other businesses, providing centralised oversight. Subsidiary companies are typically run by their own management teams. Holding companies offer strategic flexibility and tax advantages through diversified investments and capital allocation. There are different types of holding companies, from pure holding companies to mixed and financial models. A holding company is a parent company that owns and oversees other businesses. Instead of making products or providing services, it focuses on managing subsidiary businesses and brands while maintaining control through its voting stock. This allows the parent company to exercise control without participating in day-to-day operations.

fin

HTML: HyperText Markup Language

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets and scripting languages such as JavaScript.

tech

HTML, HyperText Markup Language

HTTP Methods

GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE, PATCH, OPTIONS, CONNECT, and TRACE are the most common HTTP actions. In other words, they represent Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations within a database.

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HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, where hypertext documents include hyperlinks to other resources that the user can easily access, for example by a mouse click or by tapping the screen in a web browser.

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HTTP, Hypertext Transfer Protocol

HTTPS: Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure

HTTPS

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a protocol that aims to establish a secure connection between servers. It is not possible to connect securely to a website with HTTP. HTTPS makes it possible to connect to websites such as HTTP in a secure way.

tech

HTTPS, Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure