The UK's official graduate careers website

Login to My Prospects

Not a member yet? Join now
 

Search site
 

Banking, investment and insurance : Jargon buster

More in this section

  1. Overview
  2. Job roles
  3. Entry and progression
  4. Typical employers
  5. Opportunities abroad
  6. Future trends
  7. Jargon buster

Print all pages in this section

Case studies

  • AIM (Alternative Investment Market) - the London Stock Exchange's international market for smaller growing companies. 
  • Back office - support functions within an organisation dedicated to running the company, e.g. IT, accounting and human resources.
  • Broker - a person who acts as an intermediary between a prospective buyer and a seller.
  • Credit crunch - occurs when the supply of credit decreases and there is a reduction in the availability of loans.
  • Derivatives - the group term for financial contracts between buyers and sellers of commodities or securities.
  • Emerging markets - rapid growth and expansion of business and financial markets of developing nations/countries.
  • Financial Services Authority (FSA) - regulator of the UK's financial services industry.
  • Foreign Exchange Market - otherwise known as Forex, FX or currency market. It is the international money market in which currencies are traded.
  • Front office - function that relates to revenue-generating activities for a financial firm and departments that have customer/client interaction.
  • FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange) - a provider of stock market indices and data services. The FTSE 100 Index lists the most highly capitalised companies on the London Stock Exchange.
  • GDP (gross domestic product) - the total value of goods produced and services provided in a country within a set period of time.
  • Hedge funds - a private investment fund that is involved with a variety of investment and trading activities and a range of assets. They are usually only open to a limited range of qualified investors and a performance fee is charged.
  • Instrument - a tradable asset, typically stocks, bonds, futures, options and currencies.
  • LSE - London Stock Exchange.
  • OECD - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Group of over 30 countries working towards identifying good practices and coordinating domestic and international policies on economic, environmental and social issues.
  • Recession - a general slowdown in economic activity for two consecutive quarters of the year as measured by GDP.
  • Risk management - management of the risks to which a company might be faced with. Involves analysing all possible risks and determining how to handle these through trading out, or transferring the risk through derivatives.
  • Trader - person who buys and sells instruments in the financial markets.
  • Underwriting - assesses the ability of a customer to buy/receive a company's products. It can guarantee a buyer for an entire issue of stocks and shares.
 
 
 
AGCAS
Written by Natalie Sermon, University of Wolverhampton
Date: 
August 2011
© Copyright AGCAS & Graduate Prospects Ltd | Disclaimer
 
 
 

This website is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with CSS enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets if you are able to do so.