Basic Banking Terminology and Concepts

Madan Shrestha

Banking terms are an important part of making decisions. The banking industry applies a wide range of terms and terminologies. In this entity, I have disclosed a catalog of fundamental banking terms and terminology. Fundamental banking terms are frequently applied. These terms are useful and general knowledge. Banking terms play a vital role not only for bankers. It is most important for all learners. These banking terms are useful for Banking Contenders, Finances, Commerce, and many more learners.

AML:

AML stands for Anti Money Laundering. These three letters are used to describe the body of legislation that seeks to combat money laundering of funds from illegal activities, and which could be used to finance terrorist or criminal activities.

International concern over terrorist financing, especially in recent months due to the terrorist attacks in Paris and the acts of a lone wolf in San Bernardino, California, has led to the creation of stricter rules for financial operations. The fintech industry is aware that it must make its authentication procedures tougher and more sophisticated given the stricter legislation around the world.

API:

API comes from Application Programming Interface. It is a combination of functions or procedures used by computer programs to access the services of the operational system, software libraries, or other systems. Put in less technical terms, we could define them as the computer procedures that establish how one software program can communicate with another.

APR:

Annual percentage rate: the percentage that a bank makes you pay in interest when you borrow money from it, calculated over a period of one year.

Assets:

anything of material value or usefulness that is owned by a person or company

Automated Teller Machine (ATM):

ATM is the machine that dispenses cash and also provides mini statements to the customer. When the customer opens a bank account in the bank, she/he will be provided an  ATM card. By using this card she/he can withdraw money from any ATM machine.

ASBA:

ASBA stands for Application Supported by Blocked Amount. It is the system through which the account holder can apply for shares (IPOs and FPOs). The value of the applied share will be in the same bank account but will be blocked or frozen. Once the share is allotted, only the allotted amount will be deducted from that bank account.

Bancassurance:

Bancassurance is the selling of the insurance policies and products of insurance companies by banks as corporate agents through their branches.

Bank Draft:

An order to pay someone that is sent from one bank to another bank, usually in a different country.

Banknote:

A piece of paper money (especially one issued by a central bank).

Bancassurance:  Bancassurance refers to the distribution of insurance products and the insurance policies of insurance companies which may be life policies or non-life policies like home insurance – car insurance, media policies, and others, by banks as corporate agents through their branches located in different parts of the country by charging a fee

Bank Rate :

The bank rate is the rate of interest that is charged on the amount lent by the Central Bank to the banks and financial institutions.

Bank Statement:

A Bank statement is the summary record of all the transactions of an account holder of a particular bank showing all the debits (withdrawals) and credits (deposits).

Base Rate :

The base rate is the minimum rate of interest on which a bank can issue loans. The base rate is calculated as per the formula provided by the Central Bank.

BIPS :

Bank Internet payment system: an electronic system for making payments by moving money directly into a bank account over the Internet.

Bond:

An agreement to borrow money to buy a house, or the money that you borrow; a mortgage.

Bounced Cheque:

It refers to the unsuccessful processing of the cheque. A situation where the account of the person does not have enough balance in his/her bank account to cash the amount written in the cheque.

Capital Market:

A capital market is a financial market where long-term financial instruments like stocks, bonds, and others are traded. These instruments generally have a maturity period of more than a year.

Cardholder:

Someone who owns a credit card or debit card for buying things with.

Cashback:

Money from your bank account that you can get from a shop when you pay for goods with a debit card.

Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR):

CRR is the certain rate of the amount the cash that the bank and financial institutions should hold as reserves in the Central Bank.

CCD Ratio:

CCD ratio stands for the credit to core capital plus deposit ratio. It is the limit till which the banks are allowed to issue loans and advances.

Call Option:

The right to buy the underlying securities at a specified exercise price on or before a specified expiration date.

Capital Gain:

The amount by which the proceeds from the sale of a capital asset exceed its original purchase price.

Capital Markets:

The market in which long-term securities such as stocks and bonds are bought and sold.

Cheque:

Cheque is a document that orders a bank to pay a specific amount of money from a person’s account to the entity whose name the cheque has been issued. When a bank account is opened, the bank provides the checkbook to the account holder. There are three parties involved in the cheque i.e. Drawer. Drawee and Payee.

CHIPS:

Clearing house interbank payment system: an electronic system for making international payments in dollars and for changing money from one currency to another.

Collateral:

Property that you agree to give to a bank if you fail to pay back money that you have borrowed.

Commission: An extra amount of money that you have to pay to a bank or other organization when they provide a service for you.

Compound Interest:

It is the system or process of calculating the interest where interest receivable or accumulated is added with a principle that will give the compound amount and the interest is charged back on that compound amount. The interest amount is higher than the simple interest.

Cost of Fund:

Cost of funds refers to the rate of interest that the bank and financial institutions have to bear while collecting the funds. In other words, it is the weighted average of all types of interest rates paid to various types of deposit accounts (short-term, long-term credit.

Credit:

An amount of money that you add to an account. The amount of money that you take out of an account is a debit.

Credit Crunch:

The credit crunch is a condition where banks are in a tight position to offer loans. During a credit crunch, the demand for loans is high but the supply of deposit is very low or negligible.

Credit Limit:

The maximum amount of money that a customer can borrow using a particular credit card account.

Credit Line:

An amount of money that a person or company can borrow from a bank or other financial institution.

Credit Rating:

Financial information about someone that a bank or shop uses for deciding whether to lend them money or to give them credit.

Credit Transfer:

Payment is made directly from one bank account to another.

Debit:

An amount of money taken from a bank account.

Debit Card:

A card (usually plastic) that enables the holder to withdraw money or to have the cost of purchases charged directly to the holder’s bank account.

Demat Account:

Demat Account is an account in which the investors can hold their shares in electronic form.

Deposit:

An amount of money that you pay into a bank account.

Depositor:

Someone who pays money into a bank.

Deposit Account:

A savings account in which the deposit is held for a fixed term or in which withdrawals can be made only after giving notice or with loss of interest.

Direct Debit :

An order to a bank to regularly pay money from your account to a person or organization.

Digital Wallet / E-Wallet:

A digital wallet is an application or system that allows the customer to perform financial transactions in an electronic medium. You will have a unique user id where you can load money through your bank account and make payments in exchange of goods and services to the suppliers/seller.

Direct Deposit:

Your salary is always put directly into your bank account.

Discount Rate:

The rate of interest that a central bank charges another bank that borrows from it.

Drawer:

The person writing the cheque or the bank account holder.

Drawee:

Bank who is responsible to make payment

E-Banking:

E-banking is an electronic system that allows customers of banks and financial institutions to conduct their banking transactions, and check statements and, other available services through their respective bank’s websites. It is also popularly known as online banking and Internet banking. The use of e-banking in Nepal is also increasing as it is easy to use and saves time.

Electronic Fund Transfer:

Electronic fund transfer (EFT) is an electronic transfer of money from one bank account to another, either within a single financial institution or across multiple institutions, without the direct intervention of bank staff.

EFTPOS:

Electronic funds transfer at point of sale: a system of paying for goods by moving money by computer from the customer’s bank account to the account of the company or person they have bought from.

Earnings:

The total profits of a company after taxation and interest.

Earnings per Share (EPS):

The amount of annual earnings available to common stockholders as stated on a per-share basis.

Earnings Yield: 

The ratio of earnings to price (E/P). The reciprocal is price earnings ratio (P/E).

E-Banking : 

E-Banking or electronic banking is a form of banking where funds are transferred through the exchange of electronic signals between banks and finance institutionstion and customers ATMs, Credit Cards, Debit Cards, International Cards, Internet Banking, and new fund transfer devices like SWIFT, RTGS belong to this category.

Finance:

The commercial activity of providing funds and capital. OR The management of money and credit and banking and investments. OR The branch of economics that studies the management of money and other assets.

Fiscal Policy:

Fiscal policy is the policy of the government that adjusts its spending levels (expenditure) in different sectors on the basis of its priority and tax rates (revenue) to influence the economy.

Fund:

A financial institution that sells shares to individuals and invests in securities issued by other companies.

In Credit:

To have more money in an account than the amount that you have taken out.

Interest:

Money that you receive from an institution such as a bank when you keep money in an account there.

Interest Rate:

The percentage that an institution such as bank charges or pays you in interest when you borrow money from it or keep money in an account.

Interest Rate Corridor:

An interest rate corridor is the system or framework that is designed by the Central Bank to stabilize the short-term interest rates by implementing short-term monetary instruments like interbank rates, repo rates, treasury bills, and others by setting the upper limit and lower limit of the interest rate.

 Initial Public Offering (IPO):

An initial Public Offering is an act of raising investment capital by offering the stock of a company on a public stock exchange for the first time. In Nepal, the face value of IPOs are generally Rs 100.

IVR:

(Interactive Voice Response) is a technology that automates interactions with telephone callers. An efficient IVR System reduces the cost of common sales, service, collections, inquiry, and support calls to and from the company. The banking sector sees it as a highly useful service.

KYC:

Know Your Customer. This term is used in several different economic areas, but it is especially important in the financial sector. In the banking and fintech industries, KYC refers to the rules that institutions must follow regarding customer identity and the legality of their funds.

KBA:

KBA stands for Knowledge-Based-Authentication. It’s another way to try to verify digital identity – something we are now so used to like that personal question an online service asks us to make sure we are who we say we are.

Lender:

Someone who lends money or gives credit in business matters.

Lending:

Disposing of money or property with the expectation that the same thing (or an equivalent) will be returned.

Lending Rate:

A percentage that a bank charges a customer who borrows money.

Liquidity:

Liquidity refers to the ability to convert, sell, or buy liquid assets int he cash without affecting the asset’s price.

Loan:

A thing that is borrowed, especially a sum of money is expected to be paid back with interest.

Merchant:

A business person engaged in retail trade.

Merchant Bank:

In a credit card processing bank; merchants receive credit for credit card receipts less a processing fee.

Money Market:

Business activities in which banks and other financial institutions make money by lending money to other organizations.

Monetary:

Relating to or involving money.

Monetary Policy:

Monetary policy is the policy that is introduced by the Central Bank of the country which controls the money supply using the interest rates in the market in order to maintain the normal inflation rate to ensure the price stability and maintain the financial stability in the country.

Money Market:

The money market is the market where short-term financial instruments which are highly liquid are traded. These money market instruments have a maturity of less than a year and possess less risk.

Mortgage:

A legal agreement in which you borrow money from a bank in order to buy a house. You pay back your mortgage by making monthly payments.

Mutual Funds:

A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that is collected from many small and large investors for the purpose of investing in the securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments, etc.

Non-Performing Assets (NPA):

NPA refers to those kinds of loans and advances issued by banks that are defaulting or about be default where borrowers are not paying their loan principal as interest.

Online Banking:

A system that allows you to communicate with your bank on the Internet.

Overdraft:

An agreement with your bank that allows you to spend money when you have no money left in your account.

Overdraft:

The amount of money that someone owes their bank because they have used this agreement.

Overdrawn:

If you are overdrawn, or if your bank account is overdrawn, you owe your bank money that you have spent when there was no money in your account.

Passbook:

A small book showing the amounts of money that you put into and take out of your account in a building society.

Paying-in Slip:

A piece of paper on which you write information when you put money into a bank account.

Payee:

The party receiving the payment whose name is written in the cheque.

Plastic Money:

Plastic Money refers to the hard plastic cards like credit cards, debit cards, cash cards, dollar cards, and other similar cards that is being used in everyday life for making payments and replacing the use of paper cash.

Point of sale (POS):

Point of sale (POS) also known as point of purchase is the time and place where a customer completes its retail transaction by making payment in exchange for goods and services. Point of Sale (POS) terminal/ Process Data Quickly (PDQ) machine. A point of sale terminal (POS terminal) is an electronic hand-held device used to process card payments at a retail location and prints a receipt.

Premium Rate:

In banking, the premium is the cost or reward of the risk borne or taken by banks while issuing loans to their customers. It is the percentage that is added to a base rate of the particular bank which gives interest rate lending. The premium differs from one customer to another and also on different packages and sectors.

Prime Interest Rate:

The prime interest rate is the lowest rate of interest charged by banks to its largest, most secure, and most creditworthy customers on short-term loans. This rate is used as a guide for computing interest rates for other borrowers.

P2P Lending:

P2P is the acronym for peer-to-peer – a network of computers without customers or fixed servers, made up of a series of nodes without any hierarchy. In this case, we’re referring to loans among individuals, from peer to peer, with no intervention from a financial institution. These “social loans”, as they are also called, have been regulated in Spain since last year as part of the crowdfunding phenomenon.

Repo Rate:

The word “repo” means repurchase agreement. The repo rate is the rate at which the Central Bank of a country lends money to its commercial banks against securities in the event of any shortage of funds.

Reserve Repo Rate:

Reserve Repo is just the opposite of the repo where the Central Bank borrows money from commercial banks. So the reverse repo rate is the rate at which the central bank of the country borrows money from its commercial banks for short-term purposes.

Retail Banking:

Retail banking is the services that are provided by the banks to the general public on an individual basis. It is also known as consumer banking.

Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS):

RTGS is a form of electronic fund transfer system that transfers or clears and settles high-value funds or cheques from one bank to another bank within a country in a  few seconds.

Reserve:

The trait of being uncommunicative; not volunteering anything more than necessary.

Savings:

Money that you have saved in a bank or invested so that you can use it later.

Savings Ratio:

A measurement of how much money people in a country are saving, which compares the amount of money they have available to spend with the amount of money they do spend.

Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR):

SLR is a provision of reserve requirement set by the central bank to its bank and financial institutions for maintaining some liquidity in the form of cash, government bonds or other convertible assets. At present, NRB has provisioned 10% SLR for commercial banks

Stress Test:

Economics is a test used to find out if a bank or other financial institution is likely to fail or have serious problems in a difficult economic situation.

Strongroom:

A room, often in a bank, for protecting money and other valuable things from being stolen or burned in a fire.

Sub-prime:

Used to describe lending at a higher-than-usual rate of interest because it involves borrowers who are less likely to be able to pay back their loan.

SWIFT:

SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. SWIFT is an electronic system that connects financial institutions all over the world through a network and allows them to perform financial transactions (receive and payments) internationally.

Telebanking:

A way of doing business with a bank is by using your telephone or computer.

Teller:

The teller is the staff of the bank who cashes cheques, accepts deposits, and performs different banking services for customers.

Treasury:

A depository (a room or building) where wealth and precious objects can be kept safely OR the government department responsible for collecting and managing and spending public revenues.

Vault:

A strongly protected room in a bank where money, gold, etc is kept.

Valuation:

The process by which an investor determines the worth of a security using the risk and return concept.

Virtual Banking: 

Virtual banking is also called Internet banking, through which financial and banking services are accessed via Internet’s World Wide Web. It is called virtual banking because an internet bank has no boundaries of brick and mortar and it exists only on the internet.

Warrant: 

An option for a longer period of time giving the buyer the right to buy a number of shares of common stock in the company at a specified price for a specified period of time

Wholesale Banking:

Wholesale Banking is the services that are provided by banks to companies. It is also known as commercial banking.

Withdrawal:

The process of taking an amount of money out of your bank account, or the amount of money that you take out.

Various full forms releted to banking,

ACU – Asian Currency Union
ADB – Asian Development Bank
AIIB – Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
ATM – Automated Teller Machine
CBS – Core Banking System
CIF – Customer Information File
CMA – Credit Monitoring Analysis
CASA – Current Account Saving Account
CAD Capital Account Deficit
CRR – Cash Reserve Ratio
CTS – Cheque Truncation System
DCB – Development Credit Bank
DEAF – Depositor Education and Awareness Fund
ECC – Excise Control Code
ELSS – Equity Link Saving Scheme
EMI – Equated Monthly Instalment
EPFO – Employee Provident Fund Organization
EFTPOS: Electronic funds transfer at point of sale
EFT – Electronic Fund Transfer.
ECS – Electronic Clearing Service
ECB – External Commercial Borrowing
ELSS – Equity Linked Saving Scheme
FCCB – Foreign Currency Convertible Bond
FEMA – Foreign Exchange Management Act
HDFC – Housing Development Finance Corporation
HUDCO – Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited
IDFC – Infrastructure Development Finance Company
IMF – International Monetary Fund
IPO – Initial Public Offering
IRDA – Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority
IROs – Interest Rate Options
KYC – Know Your Customer
LAF- Liquidity Adjustment Facility
LTV – Loan to Value
MCLR – Marginal Cost of Funds-Based Lending Rate
NEFT – National Electronic Funds Transfer
OTP – One-Time Password
OTC – Over the counter
PAN – Permanent Account Number
PIN – Personal Identification Number
PFMS – Public Financial Management System
RTGS – Real-Time Gross Settlement
SIP – Systematic Investment Plan
SIPS – Systematically Important Payment System
SPNS – Shared Payment Network System
TAN – Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number
TDS – Tax Deducted at Source
TIN – Tax Payer Identification Number
UPI – Unified Payment Interface.
VAT – Value Added Tax
WCTL – Working Capital Term Loan