Glossary

In the broadest sense, adware is a kind of software that displays advertising on a user's computer, collects data for marketing purposes and, often, redirects search results to websites associated with the advertiser. Adware can often be used legitimately, for example, by providing a usually paid for service for free. However, frequently, adware can be considered malware (malicious software), either due to its nature of operation or the means by which it gets installed on a user's computer.

An aggregated account is a service that consolidates information from many financial accounts into one place. This allows users to access all of their accounts without needing to log into multiple pages.

Altcoins are alternative cryptocurrencies to bitcoin. Examples of altcoins include ripple, zcash, monero and dash. Altcoins can differ from Bitcoin in a number of ways. Some have a different economic model or a different coin-distribution method, like altcoins that were given away to all citizens of a country. Others employ different proof-of-work mining algorithms, perhaps to resist specialized mining hardware — or maybe they don’t even rely on proof of work at all. Several altcoins offer a more versatile programming language to build applications on top of, while yet others offer more privacy compared to Bitcoin. And there are also altcoins that serve very specific, non-monetary use cases, like domain name registry or data storage pointers.

Anti-virus is a software that is designed to detect, stop and remove viruses and other kinds of malicious software.

The Association of Southeast Asian Countries is a regional body comprising ten Southeast Asian countries, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration among its members and other Asian states. Due to the situation of the countries in relation to international shipping routes, the region is critically important for global trade.

A-shares are one of the classes available to investors in open-end mutual funds. A-shares are usually offered to individual retail investors. A-shares are commonly characterised by front-end sales load structures, meaning that investors pay a fee when buying in to the fund.

A back charge occurs when a billing is issues to collect an expense made in a previous billing period. A back charge can be made due to non-receipt of payment for services or goods, to an adjust an error or to collect payment for an expense that was previously not billable.

Backdating refers to marking a document of any form with a date prior to the date of signing. Backdating is illegal in most jurisdictions, but can be allowed in particular cases with the consent of all parties.

Back door listing is a strategy to "go public" (i.e., be listed in a stock exchange) used by a company that does not meet the required criteria. In back door listing, a company desiring to go public acquires a different company which is already listed on the exchange.

The back office refers to all functions within a company that are not client-facing. These include IT services, regulatory compliance, etc.

A backorder is an order a vendor places with a supplier for additional stock of an item that has sold out in order to satisfy consumer demand. A backorder may indicate that an item is particularly successful or be a sign of poor inventory management.

Backpricing is a practice of establishing a price for a specific kind of futures contracts in which the buyer agrees to buy the commodity for an agreed price at a future date.

Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (BACS) is the organisation responsible for overseeing the settlement schemes of Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit in the United Kingdom.

A bad bank is an institution set up to buy the bad loans or assume the risky assets of another financial institution or group thereof. This practice is used to clear the balance sheet(s) of the original institution(s), although it does not absolve of all negative consequences, such as write-downs.

Bad credit refers to a person's or entity's assess inability to repay debts, either on time or in full. Credit ratings, good or bad, are assessed by credit rating agencies on the basis of past loan repayment behaviour.

Bad debt refers to an expense a business becomes exposed to when credit extended to a customer is deemed uncollectible.

A bad debt expense is considered such when it is recognised that it would be impossible to collect a receivable due to a client being unable fulfil their obligation to pay an outstanding debt due to financial problems or bankruptcy.

Baidu is the market leader in internet search in China. It is equivalent to Google in the USA and the majority of Europe. Baidu offers product and service similar to Google, including search, maps, video, internet TV and more. Like Google, Baidu generates revenue from advertising. It controls 75% of the search market share in China and is the 2nd largest search engine in the world. In 2007, Baidu became the first Chinese company to be included in the SADAQ-100 index. Baidu has a market cap of $90 billion, as of 2018. Baidu is involved in advanced technological research and has heavily invested in autonomous vehicle development.

A bailout is the act of saving a failing company by providing needed money and resources. A bailout can be undertaken by a business, government or an individual to prevent the consequences of the company failing, such as bankruptcy and defaults. Bailouts can take many forms, including a direct cash infusion or a loan, buying of bonds or stocks, or other, and may or may not require the recused party to pay back the received funds. A famous example was the 2008 financial sector bailout, when governments in the USA and Europe stepped in to rescue failing banks in order to prevent knock-on effects to the wider economy from banks' collapse.

The balance of payments (BoP) refers to the sum of all transactions that individuals, companies and government bodies in one country have made with companies, individuals and government bodies outside the country over a period of time. It is sometimes referred to as balance of international payments.

A balance sheet is a report detailing the financial standing of a company, including assets, liabilities and the equity belonging to shareholders. It is used to evaluate the capital structure of a company and calculate rates of return. A balance sheet is a financial statement that provides a glance at they monetary conditions of a company at any given time.

Basel III is an international regulatory framework for banks developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in response to the 2008 financial crisis. In law as of December 7, 2017, Basel III aims to strengthen the regulation, supervision and risk management in banks.

BitPesa is a foreign exchange and payment platform for frontier markets. BitPesa was founded in November 2013 by Elizabeth Rossiello with headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and offices and staff in Lagos, London, Luxembourg, Dakar and Madrid. Focusing on becoming the largest licensed payment company in the UK, Europe and Africa that offers real-time settlement at wholesale FX rates to frontier markets.

B-shares refer to a class of shares available to retail investors in an open-end mutual fund. B-shares, along with A-shares and C-shares, are classified according to they varying sales loads they charge, as structured by the mutual fund company and paid to intermediaries. Investors are usually also charges operating expenses, in addition to sales loads. B-shares usually have a back-end sales load structure, which means that an investors pays a fee upon exiting the fund. These sales loads are paid to intermediaries and are separate from operating expenses.

B-shares refer to equity share investment in Chinese companies, traded on one of two exchanges. On the Shenzhen Exchange, B-shares are traded in Hong Kong dollar. On the Shanghai Exchange, B-shares trade is US dollars.