Banking Terms

Acceptance:
The contractual agreement which comes into force when the drawee of an instrument writes "accepted" on the document and specifies a payment date. The drawee, thereby known as the acceptor, is responsible for making the payment at maturity.

Account:
A record of financial transactions in the books of accounts for an asset or individual, such as at a bank.

Accounts Receivable:
Money which is owed to a company by a customer for products and services provided on credit. This is treated as a current asset in the company's balance sheet.

Accrued Expense:
Is an expense that is incurred, but not yet paid form during a given accounting period. An example of this is wages due to workers, but not paid fully or partly due to various reasons such as liquidity crunch or so.

Affidavit:
A statement written and sworn to in the presence of someone authorized to administer an oath, such as a notary public. The document may be required for legal purposes.

Appraisal:
A professional opinion, usually written, of the market value of a property, such as a home, business, or other asset whose market price is not easily determined. Usually required when a property is sold, insured or financed.

Appropriation:
Funds set aside for a specific purpose. For example, a debenture redemption reserve is created for which funds are periodically set aside to facilitate repayment of the debenture at a  predetermined date.

APR: 
Annual Percentage Rate. The yearly cost of a loan, including interest, insurance, etc., expressed as a percentage.

Articles of association:
For a limited company, it is a document which defines relationship between shareholders and directors and between shareholders and so on. Along with the memorandum of association, it forms preamble for a body corporate.

Asset:
An asset is something of value that is owned and can be used to produce something. For example, the cash you own can be used to pay your tuition. ... A bank has assets such as cash held in its vaults and monies that the bank holds at the Federal Reserve bank (called “reserves”), loans that are made to customers, and bonds.

ATM:
Automated Teller Machine, a machine at a bank branch or other location which enables as customer to perform basic banking activities like fund transfer, balance inquiry, mini statement, PIN reset, etc.

Authentication:
Verification that a legal document is genuine or valid, such as through a seal from an authorized public official.