Credit default swap
Contract by which one party transfers, for a periodical payment of a premium to the other, a credit risk attached to a loan or a security when a determined event occurs which results in the deterioration of the solvency of the debtor.
Default
A declared condition of being unable to honour debts and/or payment of the relative interest.
Fair value
The amount of consideration for which an asset can be exchanged, or a liability settled under free market conditions, between knowledgeable and willing parties.
Floor
Derivatives contract on interest rates, traded outside regulated markets, with which a lower limit is set on the reduction of the lending rate.
Funding
Acquisition in various form of the funds required for the activities of a company or for particular financial operations.
Futures
Standardised forward contracts with which the parties agree to exchange securities or goods at a set price on a future date. These contracts are usually traded on organised markets, where the execution of the contract is guaranteed.
Geographical disaster recovery
A set of technical and organisational procedures set in motion when a catastrophe occurs which causes the complete data processing platform to shut down. The objective is to reactivate EDP functions that are vital to the company at a secondary (recovery) site.
A disaster recovery system is defined as “geographical” when it is located at least 50 km from the original system. The primary objective is to reduce risk arising from disaster events with a potential impact on an entire metropolitan area (i.e. earthquakes, floods, military intervention, etc.) as prescribed by international safety standards.
Goodwill
This is the amount paid for the acquisition of an interest in a company which is the difference between the cost and the corresponding proportion of the shareholders’ equity, the part that is not attributable to the assets of the company acquired.
Hedge fund
A mutual investment fund which uses hedging instruments to achieve a better result in terms of the relationship between risk and yield.
IAS/IFRS
International accounting standards set by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), a private sector international body set up in April 2001, to which the accounting professions of major countries belong while the European Union, the IOSC (International Organization of Securities Commissions) and the Basle Committee participate as observers. This body has taken over from the International Accounting Committee (IASC), formed in 1973 to promote the harmonisation of rules for preparing company accounts. When the IASC was transformed into the IASB, one decision taken was to term the new accounting standards “International Financial Reporting Standards” (IFRS).