Information about Credit Union
cooperative financial institution that is owned and controlled by its members. Credit unions differ from banks and other financial institutions in that the members who have accounts in the credit union are the owners of the credit union.
Credit union policies governing interest rates and other matters are set by a volunteer Board of Directors elected by and from the membership itself. Only a member of a credit union may deposit money with the credit union, or borrow money from it. As such, credit unions have historically marketed themselves as providing superior member service and being committed to helping members improve their financial health.
Credit unions may be viewed as non-profit organizations, or alternatively as for-profit enterprises charged with making a profit for their members (who receive any profits earned by the cooperative in the form of dividends paid on savings, which are taxed as ordinary income, or reduced interest rates on loans).
This debate reflects credit unions' unusual organizational structure, which attempts to solve the principal-agent problem by ensuring the owners and the users of the institution are the same people. In any case, credit unions generally cannot accept donations and must be able to prosper in a competitive market economy.
In the United States, credit unions typically pay higher dividend (interest) rates on shares (deposits) and charge lower interest on loans than banks.[1] Credit union revenues (from loans and investments) do, however, need to exceed operating expenses and dividends (interest paid on deposits) in order to maintain capital and solvency. Often credit unions have a lower cost of funds due to a higher proportion of non/low interest bearing deposits, than typical commercial banks.
Credit unions offer many of the same financial services as banks, often using a different terminology; including share accounts (savings accounts), share draft (checking) accounts, credit cards, and share term certificates (certificates of deposit) and online banking.
Credit unions exist in a wide range of sizes, ranging from volunteer operations with a handful of members to institutions with several billion dollars in assets and hundreds of thousands of members.
The nations with the greatest credit union activity are highly diverse. According to the World Council, nations with the greatest number of credit union members included the United States (87 million), India (20 million), Canada (11 million), South Korea (4.7 million), Japan (3.6 million), Mexico (3.6 million), Australia (3.5 million), Kenya (3.3 million), Ireland (3.0 million), Thailand and Brazil (2.6 million each). Countries with the highest percentage of members in the economically active population were Dominica (147% -- that is, the average person is a member of more than one credit union), Ireland (110%), Barbados (72%), Trinidad & Tobago (57%), Canada (48%), the United States (43%), Benin (27%), Australia (26%), Senegal and Mali (19% each).
Mergers of smaller credit unions with disparate membership bases often result in a credit union with a wide variety of ways to qualify to join; thus, a credit union may have a much broader "field of membership" than that credit union's name would imply.
Credit unions generally follow the principle of "once a member, always a member," which allows current credit union membership to continue even if the individual would no longer qualify to be a member (such as having changed professions or moved outside the area). However, if the member closes his/her account, they may or may not be eligible to rejoin, depending on the credit union's policies and government regulations.
Credit Unions may be chartered to serve a specific employee group, but may, for example in the USA, be allowed to change their charter to a "Community Charter". Such a charter allows them to not only serve the original employee group, but now anyone who lives, works, worships, or attends school within a geographical field of membership. In the US, this field of membership can then be expanded with the approval of the National Credit Union Administration or state regulator, and similar options are available in some other countries.
The biggest UK Credit Union trade association is the Association of British Credit Unions Limited, more commonly known as Association of British Credit Unions, ABCUL. Scottish Credit Unions are represented by the Scottish League of Credit Unions (SLCU) which has headquarters in Glasgow.
Credit union history dates to 1852, when Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch consolidated the learning from two pilot projects, one in Eilenburg and the other in Delitzsch in Germany into what are generally recognized as the first credit unions in the world. He went on to develop a highly successful urban credit union system.[4]
In 1864 Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen founded the first rural credit union in Heddesdorf (currently known as Neuwied) in Germany.[5] Although Schulze-Delitzsch can claim chronological precedence, Raiffeisen is often viewed as more important today. Rural communities in Germany faced a far more severe shortage of financial institutions than the cities. They were viewed as unbankable because of very small, seasonal flows of cash and very limited human resources. The organizational methods Raiffeisen refined there, which levered what is today called social capital, have become a hallmark of the global credit union identity.
By the time of Raiffeisen's death in 1888 credit unions had spread to Italy, France, the Netherlands, England and Austria, among other nations. The Raiffeisen name is still used by Raiffeisenbank, the largest banking group in Austria (with subsidiaries throughout Central and Eastern Europe), Rabobank (Netherlands) and similarly-named agricultural credit unions in Germany.
The first credit union in North America, the Caisse populaire de Lévis in Québec, Canada, began operations on Jan. 23rd, 1901 with a ten cent deposit. Founder Alphonse Desjardins, a reporter in the Canadian parliament, was moved to take up his mission in 1897 when he learned of a Montrealer who had been ordered by the court to pay nearly $5,000 in interest on a loan of $150 from a moneylender. Drawing extensively on European precedents, Desjardins developed a unique parish-based model for Québec: the caisse populaire.
In the United States, St. Mary's Bank Credit Union of Manchester, NH holds the distinction as the first credit union. Assisted by a personal visit from Alphone Desjardins, St. Mary's was founded by French-speaking immigrants to Manchester from Quebec in November 1908.
Pierre Jay, then Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks and Edward Filene, a Bostonian merchant, were central in establishing enabling legislation in Massachusetts in 1909.
Filene also created the Credit Union National Extension Bureau, the forerunner of the Credit Union National Association, which was formed as a confederation of state leagues at a meeting in Estes Park, Colorado in 1934. Attendees at the meeting included Dora Maxwell who would go on to help establish hundreds of credit unions and programs for the poor and Louise Herring, whose work to form credit unions and ensure their safe operation earned the title of “Mother of Credit Unions” in the United States.
In the same year, Congress passed the Federal Credit Union Act, which permitted credit unions to be organized anywhere in the United States. The legislation allowed credit unions to incorporate under either state or federal law, a system of dual chartering that persists today.
Currently there is a government financial initiative mainly being operated by Credit Unions to bring financial services to the disadvantaged of society. One aim is to significantly reduce the influence of door step lenders where a £300 loan over 30 weeks involves paying back around £450. A credit union loan would require paying back around £325.
Canada has the highest per capita use of credit unions in North America, with more than a third of the population enrolled in one. (ref: World Council of Credit Unions) They are concentrated in Quebec, where they are known as caisses populaires (people's banks), and on the Western prairies. As of Dec. 31 2006 there were 549 member caisses and 5.8 million retail members in the Caisses Populaires Desjardins federation. According to data from Credit Union Central of Canada on the same date there were 10.8 million retail members controlling CAD $193 billion in assets across all of Canada.
In the United States, credit unions have 86 million members, which is 43.47% of the economically active population[6]. In the US, federal credit unions may apply to the National Credit Union Administration for Low-Income Credit Union or LICU status. To qualify for LICU status, the majority of the credit union's membership meet specific requirements in order to be considered "low-income". This LICU status allows the credit unions to benefit from certain NCUA programs to enhance its capacity to serve underserved populations who may otherwise lack access to credit or other financial services. In addition, some state regulators also provide for similar low-income designations.
Unlike banks, which were caught redlining underserved areas in the 1970s, credit unions are not subject to federal "community reinvestment" requirements -- essentially because credit unions, by their nature and mission of "people helping people," already meet the financial needs of a broad spectrum of people that fall within their fields of membership, and play an active role in community development and growth. Because of that, credit unions have successfully lobbied to exempt themselves from the (U.S. federal) Community Reinvestment Act, the law that forces banks to provide services in low-income areas.
As of the end of 2005, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) insured more than $515 billion in deposits at 8,695 nonprofit cooperative US credit unions. For comparison, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured more than $3,000 billion in deposits at 8,900 banks and thrift institutions. The NCUA and the FDIC are both independent federal agencies backed by the full faith and credit of the US government.
Due to their status as not-for-profit financial institutions, credit unions in the United States are exempt from federal and state income taxes (but, not from employment or property taxes, among others). Additionally, credit union members pay income taxes on dividends earned through financial participation in the credit union; this is similar to the taxation structure enjoyed by many banks incorporated under Chapter S.
In the United States bank trade associations are opposed to the tax-free structure on earnings that credit unions enjoy and the American Bankers Association has identified the revocation of credit unions' tax-free status as topping its political agenda in 2004 and 2005. However, bank holding companies and their affiliates aggressively compete to provide services to credit unions through their ATM networks, corporate checking accounts, and Certificate of Deposit programs. In 2007, the American Bankers Association barred credit union employees from attending ABA sponsored educational seminars. This includes online classes that require registration. Based upon the pretense that the ABA only wants to serve its members, the American Bankers Association continues to attempt to weaken credit unions and take back the 6% market share that credit unions currently hold.
Credit unions maintain that no matter their size or field of membership, the fact that they are owned by their members and not shareholders makes them fundamentally different from banks[8]
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Economic policy
Monetary policy
Central bank Money supply
Fiscal policy
Spending Deficit Debt
Trade policy
Tariff Trade agreement
Finance
Financial market
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)
Credit union policies governing interest rates and other matters are set by a volunteer Board of Directors elected by and from the membership itself. Only a member of a credit union may deposit money with the credit union, or borrow money from it. As such, credit unions have historically marketed themselves as providing superior member service and being committed to helping members improve their financial health.
Credit unions may be viewed as non-profit organizations, or alternatively as for-profit enterprises charged with making a profit for their members (who receive any profits earned by the cooperative in the form of dividends paid on savings, which are taxed as ordinary income, or reduced interest rates on loans).
This debate reflects credit unions' unusual organizational structure, which attempts to solve the principal-agent problem by ensuring the owners and the users of the institution are the same people. In any case, credit unions generally cannot accept donations and must be able to prosper in a competitive market economy.
In the United States, credit unions typically pay higher dividend (interest) rates on shares (deposits) and charge lower interest on loans than banks.[1] Credit union revenues (from loans and investments) do, however, need to exceed operating expenses and dividends (interest paid on deposits) in order to maintain capital and solvency. Often credit unions have a lower cost of funds due to a higher proportion of non/low interest bearing deposits, than typical commercial banks.
Credit unions offer many of the same financial services as banks, often using a different terminology; including share accounts (savings accounts), share draft (checking) accounts, credit cards, and share term certificates (certificates of deposit) and online banking.
Credit unions exist in a wide range of sizes, ranging from volunteer operations with a handful of members to institutions with several billion dollars in assets and hundreds of thousands of members.
Global dispersion
Based on data from the World Council of Credit Unions, at the end of 2006 there were 46,377 credit unions in 97 countries around the world. Collectively they served 172 million retail members and controlled US $1.1 trillion in assets.[2] Note that the World Council does not include data from co-operative banks, so that for example some nations generally seen as the pioneers of credit unionism (including Germany, France, Holland and Italy) are not included in their data. The European Association of Co-operative Banks reported 34 million members in these four countries at the end of 2005 [3]The nations with the greatest credit union activity are highly diverse. According to the World Council, nations with the greatest number of credit union members included the United States (87 million), India (20 million), Canada (11 million), South Korea (4.7 million), Japan (3.6 million), Mexico (3.6 million), Australia (3.5 million), Kenya (3.3 million), Ireland (3.0 million), Thailand and Brazil (2.6 million each). Countries with the highest percentage of members in the economically active population were Dominica (147% -- that is, the average person is a member of more than one credit union), Ireland (110%), Barbados (72%), Trinidad & Tobago (57%), Canada (48%), the United States (43%), Benin (27%), Australia (26%), Senegal and Mali (19% each).
Membership restrictions
Governmental regulatory agencies require that credit unions restrict their membership to defined segments of the population, such as people who live, work, worship, or attend school in a well-defined geographic area; employees of specific companies or trades; members of specific non-profit groups (alumni associations, conservation or other advocacy organizations, lodges, churches, or the like); or a particular occupational group (teachers, doctors, etc.) In the U.S., this is referred to as a credit union's "field of membership." Internationally it is referred to as the 'common bond' or 'bond of association'.Mergers of smaller credit unions with disparate membership bases often result in a credit union with a wide variety of ways to qualify to join; thus, a credit union may have a much broader "field of membership" than that credit union's name would imply.
Credit unions generally follow the principle of "once a member, always a member," which allows current credit union membership to continue even if the individual would no longer qualify to be a member (such as having changed professions or moved outside the area). However, if the member closes his/her account, they may or may not be eligible to rejoin, depending on the credit union's policies and government regulations.
Credit Unions may be chartered to serve a specific employee group, but may, for example in the USA, be allowed to change their charter to a "Community Charter". Such a charter allows them to not only serve the original employee group, but now anyone who lives, works, worships, or attends school within a geographical field of membership. In the US, this field of membership can then be expanded with the approval of the National Credit Union Administration or state regulator, and similar options are available in some other countries.
Credit Union Leagues and Associations
Credit unions in the United States have traditionally employed a state/national trade association relationship that aligns credit unions with state “Credit Union Leagues” followed by national affiliation with the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) of Madison, Wisconsin. Federal credit unions may also be members of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU).The biggest UK Credit Union trade association is the Association of British Credit Unions Limited, more commonly known as Association of British Credit Unions, ABCUL. Scottish Credit Unions are represented by the Scottish League of Credit Unions (SLCU) which has headquarters in Glasgow.
Corporate credit unions
The majority of credit unions are known as natural-person credit unions, and provide service to individual consumers. Corporate credit unions (also known as central credit unions in Canada) also exist, but instead serve the needs of credit unions with operational support, funds clearing tasks as well as product and service delivery. In effect, they serve as a credit union's credit union. The largest corporate credit union in the United States is U.S. Central Credit Union of Lenexa, Kansas, which serves as a central clearing house for corporate credit unions. The two largest corporate credit unions that serve only natural-person credit unions are Western Corporate Federal Credit Union (WesCorp) in San Dimas, California and Southwest Corporate Federal Credit Union in Plano, Texas.History
:Credit union history dates to 1852, when Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch consolidated the learning from two pilot projects, one in Eilenburg and the other in Delitzsch in Germany into what are generally recognized as the first credit unions in the world. He went on to develop a highly successful urban credit union system.[4]
)
F.W. Raiffeisen
By the time of Raiffeisen's death in 1888 credit unions had spread to Italy, France, the Netherlands, England and Austria, among other nations. The Raiffeisen name is still used by Raiffeisenbank, the largest banking group in Austria (with subsidiaries throughout Central and Eastern Europe), Rabobank (Netherlands) and similarly-named agricultural credit unions in Germany.
The first credit union in North America, the Caisse populaire de Lévis in Québec, Canada, began operations on Jan. 23rd, 1901 with a ten cent deposit. Founder Alphonse Desjardins, a reporter in the Canadian parliament, was moved to take up his mission in 1897 when he learned of a Montrealer who had been ordered by the court to pay nearly $5,000 in interest on a loan of $150 from a moneylender. Drawing extensively on European precedents, Desjardins developed a unique parish-based model for Québec: the caisse populaire.
In the United States, St. Mary's Bank Credit Union of Manchester, NH holds the distinction as the first credit union. Assisted by a personal visit from Alphone Desjardins, St. Mary's was founded by French-speaking immigrants to Manchester from Quebec in November 1908.
Pierre Jay, then Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks and Edward Filene, a Bostonian merchant, were central in establishing enabling legislation in Massachusetts in 1909.
Filene also created the Credit Union National Extension Bureau, the forerunner of the Credit Union National Association, which was formed as a confederation of state leagues at a meeting in Estes Park, Colorado in 1934. Attendees at the meeting included Dora Maxwell who would go on to help establish hundreds of credit unions and programs for the poor and Louise Herring, whose work to form credit unions and ensure their safe operation earned the title of “Mother of Credit Unions” in the United States.
In the same year, Congress passed the Federal Credit Union Act, which permitted credit unions to be organized anywhere in the United States. The legislation allowed credit unions to incorporate under either state or federal law, a system of dual chartering that persists today.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom Credit Unions are regulated by the Financial Services Authority, or FSA. UK credit unions are classified under two types, type 1 are the smaller CUs while type 2 are larger. From November 2006 many type 2 CUs will be offering their members debit card accounts. For the first time this will enable CU members to obtain funds from any Link ATM. UK CUs will not be offering cheques as these are generally being phased out for many UK financial transactions. Many CUs are offering most of the services available from other financial institutions such as direct debits and standing orders.Currently there is a government financial initiative mainly being operated by Credit Unions to bring financial services to the disadvantaged of society. One aim is to significantly reduce the influence of door step lenders where a £300 loan over 30 weeks involves paying back around £450. A credit union loan would require paying back around £325.
North American statistics
)
Credit unions are called caisses populaires in French speaking communities of Canada. This one is located in Shediac, New Brunswick.
In the United States, credit unions have 86 million members, which is 43.47% of the economically active population[6]. In the US, federal credit unions may apply to the National Credit Union Administration for Low-Income Credit Union or LICU status. To qualify for LICU status, the majority of the credit union's membership meet specific requirements in order to be considered "low-income". This LICU status allows the credit unions to benefit from certain NCUA programs to enhance its capacity to serve underserved populations who may otherwise lack access to credit or other financial services. In addition, some state regulators also provide for similar low-income designations.
Unlike banks, which were caught redlining underserved areas in the 1970s, credit unions are not subject to federal "community reinvestment" requirements -- essentially because credit unions, by their nature and mission of "people helping people," already meet the financial needs of a broad spectrum of people that fall within their fields of membership, and play an active role in community development and growth. Because of that, credit unions have successfully lobbied to exempt themselves from the (U.S. federal) Community Reinvestment Act, the law that forces banks to provide services in low-income areas.
As of the end of 2005, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) insured more than $515 billion in deposits at 8,695 nonprofit cooperative US credit unions. For comparison, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insured more than $3,000 billion in deposits at 8,900 banks and thrift institutions. The NCUA and the FDIC are both independent federal agencies backed by the full faith and credit of the US government.
Credit Unions and Banks in the United States
Tension has always existed between credit unions and banks. When credit unions were first organizing in the United States in the early twentieth century, the banking industry was opposed, remaining so ever since. These tensions have only been exacerbated as many credit unions have grown, expanded their fields of membership to include large communities and whole states, and in the eyes of some, are indistinguishable from banks[7].Due to their status as not-for-profit financial institutions, credit unions in the United States are exempt from federal and state income taxes (but, not from employment or property taxes, among others). Additionally, credit union members pay income taxes on dividends earned through financial participation in the credit union; this is similar to the taxation structure enjoyed by many banks incorporated under Chapter S.
In the United States bank trade associations are opposed to the tax-free structure on earnings that credit unions enjoy and the American Bankers Association has identified the revocation of credit unions' tax-free status as topping its political agenda in 2004 and 2005. However, bank holding companies and their affiliates aggressively compete to provide services to credit unions through their ATM networks, corporate checking accounts, and Certificate of Deposit programs. In 2007, the American Bankers Association barred credit union employees from attending ABA sponsored educational seminars. This includes online classes that require registration. Based upon the pretense that the ABA only wants to serve its members, the American Bankers Association continues to attempt to weaken credit unions and take back the 6% market share that credit unions currently hold.
Credit unions maintain that no matter their size or field of membership, the fact that they are owned by their members and not shareholders makes them fundamentally different from banks[8]
References
1. ^ [1]
2. ^ World Council of Credit Unions, 2006 Statistical Report.
3. ^ European Association of Cooperative Banks, Annual Statistical Report, 2005
4. ^ J. Carroll Moody & Gilbert C. Fite. The Credit Union Movement: Origins and Development 1850 to 1980. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., Dubuque, Iowa, 1984, p. 4
5. ^ J. Carroll Moody & Gilbert C. Fite. The Credit Union Movement: Origins and Development 1850 to 1980. p. 8
6. ^ 2005 statistical report from the World Council of Credit Unions
7. ^ Credit Union Competition, from the American Bankers Association web page regarding industry issues.
8. ^ Why Credit Unions are tax exempt, from the governmental affairs section of CUNA's web site.
2. ^ World Council of Credit Unions, 2006 Statistical Report.
3. ^ European Association of Cooperative Banks, Annual Statistical Report, 2005
4. ^ J. Carroll Moody & Gilbert C. Fite. The Credit Union Movement: Origins and Development 1850 to 1980. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., Dubuque, Iowa, 1984, p. 4
5. ^ J. Carroll Moody & Gilbert C. Fite. The Credit Union Movement: Origins and Development 1850 to 1980. p. 8
6. ^ 2005 statistical report from the World Council of Credit Unions
7. ^ Credit Union Competition, from the American Bankers Association web page regarding industry issues.
8. ^ Why Credit Unions are tax exempt, from the governmental affairs section of CUNA's web site.
- Ian MacPherson. Hands Around the Globe: A History of the International Credit Union Movement and the Role and Development of the World Council of Credit Unions, Inc. Horsdal & Schubart Publishers Ltd, 1999.
See also
External links
- US: Credit Union National Association is a trade association for US credit unions
- US: Current Issues in Credit Unions is a podcast about credit unions and the challenges they face daily.
- US: Searchable Credit Union Database is a database containing all Credit Union data, searchable by City and State.
- US: National Credit Union Foundation is the charitable arm of the credit union industry
- US: National Association of Federal Credit Unions is a leading trade association that exclusively represents the interests of federal credit unions before the federal government and the public.
- US: NAFCU Services Corporation is a wholly-owned, for-profit subsidiary of the National Association of Federal Credit Unions that identifies innovative solutions for growth and productivity for credit unions.
- US: National Credit Union Administration regulates all Federal credit unions and insures most US credit unions (through its National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, aka NCUSIF).
- US: USA Credit Unions is a credit union directory of all USA Credit Unions.
- US: Credit Unions Online is a credit union directory providing searches of credit union Web sites worldwide.
- Search Australia
- Search Canada
- Search United States
- US: "How to Join a CU" finds US credit unions by location, employer, or affiliation
- US: Bankrate lists US credit unions by state
- US: CreditUnions.com is a community portal and financial/contact data resource for all U.S. credit unions]
- INTERNATIONAL: World Council of Credit Unions is a trade association for credit unions worldwide headquartered in Madison, WI.
- INTERNATIONAL: Credit Union Exectives Society is an individual association for credit union leaders worldwide
- UK: Association of British Credit Unions largest national body for British Credit Unions.
- Scotland: Scottish League of Credit Unions.http://www.scottishcu.org
- Canada: Department of Finance Canada
- Canada: Credit Union Central of Canada
- Canada: Credit Union Central of British Columbia
- Canada: Credit Unions of British Columbia
- Canada: Desjardins Group
- Ireland: Irish League of Credit Unions representative and services agency.
- Australia: "Cuscal Ltd" Credit Union Services Corporation, Australia, Limited represents 85% of the credit unions.
- Australia: Abacus - Australian Mutuals represents Credit Unions and Mutual Building Societies.
financial market participant categories, Investor vs. Speculator and Institutional vs. Retail. Action in financial market by Central banks is usually regarded as intervention rather than participation, although evidence exists in the Sprott '"Visible Hand of Uncle Sam"' report that
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An investor is any party that makes an investment.
The term has taken on a specific meaning in finance to describe the particular types of people and companies that regularly purchase equity or debt securities for financial gain in exchange for funding an expanding company.
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The term has taken on a specific meaning in finance to describe the particular types of people and companies that regularly purchase equity or debt securities for financial gain in exchange for funding an expanding company.
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Speculation, in the narrow sense of financial speculation, involves the buying, holding, selling, and short-selling of stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, collectibles, real estate, derivatives, or any valuable financial instrument to profit from fluctuations in its
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Speculation, in the narrow sense of financial speculation, involves the buying, holding, selling, and short-selling of stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, collectibles, real estate, derivatives, or any valuable financial instrument to profit from fluctuations in its
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An institutional investor is an investor, such as a bank, insurance company, retirement fund, hedge fund, or mutual fund, that is financially sophisticated and makes large investments, often held in very large portfolios of investments.
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Investment banks help companies and governments (or their agencies) raise money by issuing and selling securities in the capital markets (both equity and debt).
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Almost all investment banks also offer strategic advisory services for mergers, acquisitions, divestiture or other
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A hedge fund is an investment fund structured to avoid direct regulation and taxation in major host countries and which charges a performance fee based on the increase of the value of the fund's assets.
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mutual fund is a professionally-managed form of collective investments that pools money from many investors and invests it in stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities.
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Venture capital is a type of private equity capital typically provided by professional, outside investors to new, growth businesses. Generally made as cash in exchange for shares in the investee company, venture capital investments are usually high risk, but offer the potential
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bank is a commercial or state institution that provides financial services , including issuing money in various forms, receiving deposits of money, lending money and processing transactions and the creating of credit.
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A trust company is normally owned by one of three types of structures; an independent partnership, a bank, or a law firm, each of which specialize in being a trustee of various kinds of trusts, and managing estates.
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Prime Brokerage is the generic name for a bundled package of services offered by investment banks to hedge funds. The business advantage to a hedge fund of using a Prime Broker is that the Prime Broker provides a centralized securities clearing facility for the hedge fund, and the
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Finance studies and addresses the ways in which individuals, businesses, and organizations raise, allocate, and use monetary resources over time, taking into account the risks entailed in their projects.
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In economics, a financial market is a mechanism that allows people to easily buy and sell (trade) financial securities (such as stocks and bonds), commodities (such as precious metals or agricultural goods), and other fungible items of value at low transaction costs and at prices
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financial market participant categories, Investor vs. Speculator and Institutional vs. Retail. Action in financial market by Central banks is usually regarded as intervention rather than participation, although evidence exists in the Sprott '"Visible Hand of Uncle Sam"' report that
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Corporate finance is an area of finance dealing with the financial decisions corporations make and the tools and analysis used to make these decisions. The primary goal of corporate finance is to enhance corporate value while reducing the firm's financial risks.
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Personal finance is the application of the principles of finance to the monetary decisions of an individual or family unit. It addresses the ways in which individuals or families obtain, budget, save and spend monetary resources over time, taking into account various financial
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Economic policy
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Central bank Money supply
Fiscal policy
Spending Deficit Debt
Trade policy
Tariff Trade agreement
Finance
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bank is a commercial or state institution that provides financial services , including issuing money in various forms, receiving deposits of money, lending money and processing transactions and the creating of credit.
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Financial regulations are a form of regulation or supervision, which subjects financial institutions to certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines, aiming to maintain the integrity of the financial system.
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A cooperative (also co-operative or co-op) is defined by the International Co-operative Alliance's Statement on the Co-operative Identity as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and
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In financial economics, a financial institution acts as an agent that provides financial services for its clients. Financial institutions generally fall under financial regulation from a government authority.
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bank is a commercial or state institution that provides financial services , including issuing money in various forms, receiving deposits of money, lending money and processing transactions and the creating of credit.
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A deposit account is an account at a banking institution that allows money to be held on behalf of the account holder. Some banks charge a fee for this service, while others may pay the client interest on the funds deposited.
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Money is any token or other object that functions as a medium of exchange that is socially and legally accepted in payment for goods and services and in settlement of debts.
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A loan is a type of debt. All material things can be lent but this article focuses exclusively on monetary loans. Like all debt instruments, a loan entails the redistribution of financial assets over time, between the and the .
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Herod_Archelaus
