Banking and Investment Terms- Beginning with ‘A’

Here is a list of banking and investment terms starting with letter A and often referred in connection with banking and investment activities. 

Absolute Title
The perfect ownership a person has on a land. Absolute title confirms his unquestionable right on the property. 

Acceptance Letter
Acceptance letter is the letter that a borrower or applicant gives to the lender after reading the terms and conditions of the loan. This acceptance denotes the borrower's willingness to accept the loan offer within the particular time frame specified in the letter. 

Account Balance
Opening Account Balance / Beginning of the Day (BOD) Balance means the balance in an account at the beginning of each business day includes all deposits and withdrawals that were posted in the account prior to the beginning of the day. 
Closing Account Balance / End of the Day (EOD) Balance means the account balance computed at the end of the business day, and  also covers all the credit and debit transactions happened in the account of the customer in the day. 

Account Statement
Statement of all the debit and credit transactions in an account for a specified period, along with the respective balances against each transaction.

Acquirer 
Acquirers are banks and financial institutions that collaborate  a merchant / or establisher of an ATM centre to accept credit / debit card transactions.  

Active Account
A bank account with regular transactions.  A bank account that is not dormant or inoperative or under an attachment order of the court or enforcement authorities.

Account Payee
These words are added to the crossing on a cheque to specify that the cheque shall be collected only in the account of the payee. 

Additional Cardholder
Another member added to an existing card at the request of original card holder, thus extending its usage is called an additional cardholder. The additional cardholder can make purchases using the credit card issued to him/her. However, the responsibility to repay the monthly outstanding balance rests with the original (principal) cardholder.

Administrative Fee

A one time non-refundable  fee collected by a bank to its customer for meeting expenses related to appraisal of loan proposals undertaken for the customer. It is also called processing fee.

Advance EMI
Number of equated monthly installments, paid in advance at the time of disbursal of loan.

ALCO
Asset-Liability Management Committee (ALCO) is responsible for formulating and overseeing the function of asset liability management (ALM) of a bank. It is a strategic decision making body of banks and decides on interest rates for  different tenures on deposits and loans of different nature. 

ALM
Asset Liability Management (ALM) is concerned with managing market risks. It also deals with liquidity management, funds management, trading and capital planning as part of strategic balance sheet management.

Amortization
Amortization means repayment of Principal and Interest components of a Loan, over a period of time. Certain category of expenses or charges are also amortized over a period of time.

Annual Fee
An annual amount charged by the credit card and debit card companies to maintain the service extended. .

Annual percentage yield (APY)
A percentage rate reflecting the total amount of interest paid on a deposit account (savings, term deposits, recurring deposits etc.), based on the interest rate and the effect of interest compounding for one year.

Anywhere Banking
Facility that permits customer to deposit / withdraw cash at any branch other than the parent branch in which he holds the account. Anywhere banking offers convenience to the customer and  offers freedom to  the customer to operate  his account  from any branch of the bank, subject to the terms and conditions specified by the bank.

Application Form
A form to be filled in and signed as per the Bank's requirements to avail Banking facilities, channel facilities and loans. Details to be  furnished in the application form vary depending on the nature of the  facility. Applications may also require submission of specified documents.

Arrears Outstanding
Arrears outstanding mean the sum of the unpaid EMI's and other charges, if any, levied in the account but remaining to be remitted by the borrower.

Asset
Cash or cash equivalent or anything  of value a person possess/ own which can be turned into cash. This includes property, goods, gold, vehicle, machines, savings or investments. The opposite is liabilities. For a bank, assets are mainly the loans and liabilities are deposits. 

ATM
Acronym for automated teller machine, that allows customers to undertake basic banking activities (checking balance, withdrawing or transferring funds) without involvement of bank staff and even when the bank is closed.

Attestation
Authentication of signature of a customer of a branch carried out by the authorized officials of the branch as requested by the customer for the purpose of producing before government/ other agencies. .

Authorized Users of Gilt Account Holder (GAH User)
Gilt Account Holder is created as a client in the web-based system of Clearing Corporation India Ltd (CCIL) by PM. Users of GAH are created by PM and later on authorized by CCIL thereby authoring the user to access and operate the system. The login ID and password created by CCIL for the GAH Users and forwards to PM which in turn forwards the same to GAH. 

Automatic Funds Transfer
An authorized arrangement that permit movement of fund from one account to another automatically on a pre-arranged schedule; for example, EMI is transferred from salary account to loan account on salary date/ a particular date. 

Automatic Payment
An arrangement that authorizes an automatic debit in an operative account for payments for a purpose like payment of electricity bills, insurance premium etc. Payments are usually scheduled to be made on a specific day of the month.

Available Balance
The available balance in an account  is the amount available in the account for  immediate use at the given  point of time

Available Credit
Available credit in a credit facility / credit card is the credit limit minus current balance representing used amount. Available credit is the unused portion of your credit facility.

Available for Sale (AFS)
The securities available for sale are those securities held by the Bank where the intention is neither to trade nor to hold till maturity. These securities are valued at the fair value which is determined by reference to the best available source of current market quotations or other data relative to current value.

Average Cost
(Interest expended on deposits and borrowings / Average interest bearing liabilities)*100

Average daily Balance
The average balance in a deposit account is the sum of the daily account balances during a period divided by the number of days in the period. Normally, the period is month or quarter. Banks specify,  certain minimum average daily balance to be maintained in current and savings accounts, failing which minimum balance charges may levied by the Bank.