1.
Institutional Investor (magazine)
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Institutional Investor magazine is a monthly periodical published by Euromoney Institutional Investor. A separate international edition of the magazine was established in 1976 for readers in Europe, Capital Cities Communications purchased the magazine in 1984. The Walt Disney Company bought Capital Cities in 1996 and sold the magazine to Euromoney a year later, Institutional Investor has offices in New York City, London and Hong Kong. Institutional Investor publishes global research and issues throughout the year that often serve as industry benchmarks. Top-line results are published in the magazine while the details are available on institutionalinvestor. com. It was launched in 2003 under the title, Alpha. Throughout the year, the magazine conducts and releases proprietary research and it was established in 2009, as a successor to the magazine Alpha
2.
Security (finance)
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A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of instrument. In some jurisdictions the term specifically excludes financial instruments other than equities, in some jurisdictions it includes some instruments that are close to equities and fixed income, e. g. equity warrants. In the United States, a security is a financial asset of any kind. Securities are broadly categorized into, debt securities equity securities derivatives, the company or other entity issuing the security is called the issuer. A countrys regulatory structure determines what qualifies as a security, for example, private investment pools may have some features of securities, but they may not be registered or regulated as such if they meet various restrictions. Securities may be represented by a certificate or, more typically, non-certificated, region or country Market capitalization State Securities are the traditional way that commercial enterprises raise new capital. These may be an alternative to bank loans depending on their pricing. Another disadvantage of bank loans as a source of financing is that the bank may seek a measure of protection against default by the borrower via extensive financial covenants, through securities, capital is provided by investors who purchase the securities upon their initial issuance. In a similar way, a government may issue securities too when it needs to increase government debt, investors in securities may be retail, i. e. members of the public investing other than by way of business. The greatest part of investment, in terms of volume, is wholesale, i. e. by financial institutions acting on their own account, important institutional investors include investment banks, insurance companies, pension funds and other managed funds. The traditional economic function of the purchase of securities is investment, debt securities generally offer a higher rate of interest than bank deposits, and equities may offer the prospect of capital growth. Equity investment may also control of the business of the issuer. Debt holdings may also offer some measure of control to the if the company is a fledgling start-up or an old giant undergoing restructuring. In these cases, if interest payments are missed, the creditors may take control of the company, the last decade has seen an enormous growth in the use of securities as collateral. Purchasing securities with borrowed money secured by other securities or cash itself is called buying on margin, where A is owed a debt or other obligation by B, A may require B to deliver property rights in securities to A, either at inception or only in default. Collateral arrangements are divided into two categories, namely security interests and outright collateral transfers. Commonly, commercial banks, investment banks, government agencies and other investors such as mutual funds are significant collateral takers as well as providers
3.
Real property
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The term is historic, arising from the now-discontinued form of action, which distinguished between real property disputes and personal property disputes. Personal property was, and continues to be, all property that is not real property, in countries with personal ownership of real property, civil law protects the status of real property in real-estate markets, where estate agents work in the market of buying and selling real estate. Scottish civil law calls real property heritable property, and in French-based law, the word real derives from Latin res, which was used in Middle English to mean relating to things, especially real property. In common law, real property was property that could be protected by some form of action, in contrast to personal property. As a result of this formalist approach, some things the common law deems to be land would not be classified as such by most modern legal systems, for example an advowson was real property. By contrast the rights of a leaseholder originate in personal actions, the law now broadly distinguishes between real property and personal property. The conceptual difference was between immovable property, which would transfer title along with the land, and movable property, bethell contains much historical information on the historical evolution of real property and property rights. To be of any value a claim to any property must be accompanied by a verifiable, in many cases, a description refers to one or more lots on a plat, a map of property boundaries kept in public records. The law recognizes different sorts of interests, called estates, in real property, the type of estate is generally determined by the language of the deed, lease, bill of sale, will, land grant, etc. through which the estate was acquired. Estates are distinguished by the property rights that vest in each. A party enjoying an estate is called a tenant, some important types of estates in land include, Fee simple, An estate of indefinite duration, that can be freely transferred. The most common and perhaps most absolute type of estate, under which the tenant enjoys the greatest discretion over the disposal of the property, conditional Fee simple, An estate lasting forever as long as one or more conditions stipulated by the deeds grantor does not occur. If such a condition does occur, the property reverts to the grantor, or a remainder interest is passed on to a third party, Fee tail, An estate which, upon the death of the tenant, is transferred to his or her heirs. Life estate, An estate lasting for the life of the grantee. If a life estate can be sold, a sale does not change its duration, a life estate pur autre vie is held by one person for the natural life of another person. Such an estate may arise if the life tenant sells her life estate to another. For example, an apartment-dweller with a one-year lease has an estate in her apartment. Lessees typically agree to pay a rent to the lessor
4.
Insurance
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Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss. It is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, an entity which provides insurance is known as an insurer, insurance company, or insurance carrier. A person or entity who buys insurance is known as an insured or policyholder, the insured receives a contract, called the insurance policy, which details the conditions and circumstances under which the insured will be financially compensated. The amount of money charged by the insurer to the insured for the coverage set forth in the policy is called the premium. If the insured experiences a loss which is covered by the insurance policy. Methods for transferring or distributing risk were practiced by Chinese and Babylonian traders as long ago as the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, Chinese merchants travelling treacherous river rapids would redistribute their wares across many vessels to limit the loss due to any single vessels capsizing. The Babylonians developed a system which was recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi, c.1750 BC, and practiced by early Mediterranean sailing merchants. If a merchant received a loan to fund his shipment, he would pay the lender an additional sum in exchange for the guarantee to cancel the loan should the shipment be stolen. At some point in the 1st millennium BC, the inhabitants of Rhodes created the general average and this allowed groups of merchants to pay to insure their goods being shipped together. The collected premiums would be used to any merchant whose goods were jettisoned during transport. Separate insurance contracts were invented in Genoa in the 14th century, the first known insurance contract dates from Genoa in 1347, and in the next century maritime insurance developed widely and premiums were intuitively varied with risks. These new insurance contracts allowed insurance to be separated from investment, Insurance became far more sophisticated in Enlightenment era Europe, and specialized varieties developed. Property insurance as we know it today can be traced to the Great Fire of London, initially,5,000 homes were insured by his Insurance Office. At the same time, the first insurance schemes for the underwriting of business ventures became available, by the end of the seventeenth century, Londons growing importance as a center for trade was increasing demand for marine insurance. These informal beginnings led to the establishment of the insurance market Lloyds of London and several related shipping, the first life insurance policies were taken out in the early 18th century. The first company to offer life insurance was the Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office, founded in London in 1706 by William Talbot, edward Rowe Mores established the Society for Equitable Assurances on Lives and Survivorship in 1762. In the late 19th century, accident insurance began to become available and this operated much like modern disability insurance. The first company to offer accident insurance was the Railway Passengers Assurance Company, by the late 19th century, governments began to initiate national insurance programs against sickness and old age
5.
Pension
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The terms retirement plan and superannuation tend to refer to a pension granted upon retirement of the individual. Retirement plans may be set up by employers, insurance companies, called retirement plans in the United States, they are commonly known as pension schemes in the United Kingdom and Ireland and superannuation plans in Australia and New Zealand. Retirement pensions are typically in the form of a life annuity. A pension created by an employer for the benefit of an employee is commonly referred to as an occupational or employer pension, labor unions, the government, or other organizations may also fund pensions. Occupational pensions are a form of deferred compensation, usually advantageous to employee, many pensions also contain an additional insurance aspect, since they often will pay benefits to survivors or disabled beneficiaries. Other vehicles may provide a stream of payments. The common use of the pension is to describe the payments a person receives upon retirement. A recipient of a retirement pension is known as a pensioner or retiree, a retirement plan is an arrangement to provide people with an income during retirement when they are no longer earning a steady income from employment. Often retirement plans require both the employer and employee to contribute money to a fund during their employment in order to receive defined benefits upon retirement and it is a tax deferred savings vehicle that allows for the tax-free accumulation of a fund for later use as a retirement income. Funding can be provided in other ways, such as labor unions, government agencies. Pension plans are therefore a form of deferred compensation, a SSAS is a type of employment-based Pension in the UK. Some countries also grant pensions to military veterans, military pensions are overseen by the government, an example of a standing agency is the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Ad hoc committees may also be formed to investigate specific tasks, Commission on Veterans Pensions in 1955–56. In early 2017, the Wall Street Journal reported the percentage of American private-sector workers who have a pension is 13%. Many countries have created funds for their citizens and residents to provide income when they retire, typically this requires payments throughout the citizens working life in order to qualify for benefits later on. A basic state pension is a contribution based benefit, and depends on an individuals contribution history, for examples, see National Insurance in the UK, or Social Security in the United States of America. Many countries have put in place a social pension. These are regular, tax-funded non-contributory cash transfers paid to older people, over 80 countries have social pensions
6.
Hedge fund
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It is administered by a professional investment management firm, and often structured as a limited partnership, limited liability company, or similar vehicle. The name hedge fund originated from the long and short positions that the first of these funds used to hedge market risk. Over time, the types and nature of the hedging concepts expanded, today, hedge funds engage in a diverse range of markets and strategies and employ a wide variety of financial instruments and risk management techniques. Hedge funds are available only to certain accredited investors and cannot be offered or sold to the general public. Hedge funds have existed for decades, and became increasingly popular, growing to be a substantial fraction of asset management. Hedge funds are almost always open-ended and allow additions or withdrawals by their investors, the value of an investors holding is directly related to the fund net asset value. Many hedge fund investment strategies aim to achieve a return on investment regardless of whether markets are rising or falling. Hedge fund managers often invest money of their own in the fund they manage, a hedge fund typically pays its investment manager an annual management fee, and a performance fee. Both co-investment and performance fees serve to align the interests of managers with those of the investors in the fund, some hedge funds have several billion dollars of assets under management. The word hedge, meaning a line of bushes around a field, has long used as a metaphor for the placing of limits on risk. Early hedge funds sought to hedge specific investments against general market fluctuations by shorting the market, nowadays, however, many different investment strategies are used, many of which do not hedge risk. During the US bull market of the 1920s, there were numerous private investment vehicles available to wealthy investors. The sociologist Alfred W. Jones is credited with coining the phrase hedged fund and is credited with creating the first hedge fund structure in 1949, although this has been disputed. Jones referred to his fund as being hedged, a term commonly used on Wall Street to describe the management of investment risk due to changes in the financial markets. In the 1970s, hedge funds specialized in a single strategy, many hedge funds closed during the recession of 1969–70 and the 1973–1974 stock market crash due to heavy losses. They received renewed attention in the late 1980s, during the 1990s, the number of hedge funds increased significantly, funded with wealth created during the 1990s stock market rise. The increased interest was due to the aligned-interest compensation structure and the promise of high returns. Over the next decade hedge fund strategies expanded to include, credit arbitrage, distressed debt, fixed income, quantitative, US institutional investors such as pension and endowment funds began allocating greater portions of their portfolios to hedge funds
7.
Financial endowment
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A financial endowment is a donation of money or property to a nonprofit organization for the ongoing support of that organization. An endowment may come with stipulations regarding its usage, the total value of an institutions investments is often referred to as the institutions endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust. Among the institutions that commonly manage endowments are academic institutions, cultural institutions, service organizations, the earliest endowed chairs were those established by the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius in Athens in AD176. Aurelius created one endowed chair for each of the schools of philosophy, Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism. Later, similar endowments were set up in other major cities of the Empire. Today, the University of Glasgow has fifteen Regius Professorships, private individuals soon adopted the practice of endowing professorships. Isaac Newton held the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge beginning in 1669, unrestricted endowment can be used in any way the recipient chooses to carry out its mission. Term endowment funds stipulate that all or part of the principal may be expended only after the expiration of a period of time or occurrence of a specified event. Quasi endowment funds must retain the purpose and intent as specified by the donor or source of the original funds, Endowment revenue can be restricted by donors to serve many purposes. Endowed professorships or scholarships restricted to a subject are common. Ignoring the restriction is called invading the endowment, but change of circumstance or financial duress like bankruptcy can preclude carrying out the donors intent. A court can alter the use of restricted endowment under a doctrine called cy-près meaning to find an alternative as near as possible to the donors intent, the restricted/unrestricted distinction focuses on the use of the funds, see quasi-endowment below for a distinction about whether principal can be spent. Academic institutions, such as colleges and universities, will control a endowment fund that finances a portion of the operating or capital requirements of the institution. In addition to an endowment fund, each university may also control a number of restricted endowments that are intended to fund specific areas within the institution. The most common examples are endowed professorships, and endowed scholarships or fellowships, in the United States, the endowment is often integral to the financial health of educational institutions. Alumni or friends of institutions sometimes contribute capital to the endowment, the endowment funding culture is strong in the United States and Canada but less pronounced overseas, with the exceptions of Cambridge and Oxford universities. Endowment funds have also created to support secondary and elementary school districts in several states in the United States. An endowed professorship is a position permanently paid for with the revenue from an endowment fund set up for that purpose
8.
Corporate governance
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Corporate governance broadly refers to the mechanisms, processes and relations by which corporations are controlled and directed. Corporate governance includes the processes through which corporations objectives are set and pursued in the context of the social, regulatory, Governance mechanisms include monitoring the actions, policies, practices, and decisions of corporations, their agents, and affected stakeholders. Corporate governance practices are affected by attempts to align the interests of stakeholders, Corporate scandals of various forms have maintained public and political interest in the regulation of corporate governance. In the U. S. these include Enron and MCI Inc and their demise led to the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, a U. S. federal law intended to restore public confidence in corporate governance. Comparable failures in Australia are associated with the passage of the CLERP9 reforms. Similar corporate failures in other countries stimulated increased regulatory interest, internal stakeholders are the board of directors, executives, and other employees. Much of the contemporary interest in governance is concerned with mitigation of the conflicts of interests between stakeholders. The danger arises that, rather than overseeing management on behalf of shareholders and this aspect is particularly present in contemporary public debates and developments in regulatory policy. Ways of mitigating or preventing these conflicts of interests include the processes, customs, policies, laws, an important theme of governance is the nature and extent of corporate accountability. A related discussion at the macro level focuses on the effect of a corporate governance system on economic efficiency and this has resulted in a literature focussed on economic analysis. In this sense, Governance and Corporate Governance are different from management because governance must be EXTERNAL to the object being governed, governing agents do not have personal control over, and are not part of the object that they govern. For example, it is not possible for a CIO to govern the IT function and they are personally accountable for the strategy and management of the function. As such, they “manage” the IT function, they do not “govern” it, at the same time, there may be a number of policies, authorized by the board, that the CIO follows. When the CIO is following these policies, they are performing “governance” activities because the intention of the policy is to serve a governance purpose. Without these policies, procedures and indicators, the board has no way of governing, one source defines corporate governance as the set of conditions that shapes the ex post bargaining over the quasi-rents generated by a firm. The firm itself is modelled as a structure acting through the mechanisms of contract. Here corporate governance may include its relation to corporate finance, the Cadbury and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reports present general principles around which businesses are expected to operate to assure proper governance. Rights and equitable treatment of shareholders, Organizations should respect the rights of shareholders and they can help shareholders exercise their rights by openly and effectively communicating information and by encouraging shareholders to participate in general meetings
9.
S&P 500 Index
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The S&P500 index components and their weightings are determined by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It differs from other U. S. stock market indices, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average or the Nasdaq Composite index, because of its diverse constituency and weighting methodology. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices, and many consider it one of the best representations of the U. S. stock market, the National Bureau of Economic Research has classified common stocks as a leading indicator of business cycles. The S&P500 was developed and continued to be maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, S&P Dow Jones Indices publishes many stock market indices such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P MidCap 400, the S&P SmallCap 600, and the S&P Composite 1500. It is a free-float capitalization-weighted index, and has many symbols, such as, ^GSPC, INX. The Composite Index, as the S&P500 was first called when it introduced its first stock index in 1923, three years later in 1926, the Composite Index expanded to 90 stocks and then in 1957 it expanded to its current 500. Standard & Poors, a company that doles out financial information, in 1941 Poors Publishing merged with Standard Statistics and therein assumed the name Standard and Poors Corporation. The S&P500 index in its present form began on March 4,1957, technology has allowed the index to be calculated and disseminated in real time. The S&P500 is widely used as a measure of the level of stock prices. In September 1962, Ultronic Systems Corp. entered into an agreement with Standard, under the terms of this agreement, Ultronics computed the S&P500 Stock Composite Index, the 425 Stock Industrial Index, the 50 Stock Utility Index, and the 25 Stock Rail Index. Throughout the market day these statistics were furnished to Standard & Poors, in addition, Ultronics also computed and reported the 94 S&P sub-indexes. On August 12,1982, the index closed at 102.42, the index reached a relative intraday high—which was not exceeded for over seven years—of 1,552.87, on March 24,2000, during the dot-com bubble. The index then declined by approximately 50%, to 768.63, on October 10,2002, on May 30,2007, the S&P500 closed at 1,530.23, to set its first all-time closing high in more than seven years. Less than a later, it dropped to 1,400. In mid-2007, the mortgage crisis spread to the wider U. S. financial sector. On November 20,2008, the index closed at 752.44, a modest recovery the following day still left the index down 45. 5% for the year. This year-to-date loss was the greatest since 1931, when the market declined more than 50%. The index closed the year at 903.25, for a loss of 38. 5%, the market continued to decline in early 2009, surrounding the financial crisis of 2008
10.
Juristic person
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To have legal personality means to be capable of holding legal rights and obligations within a certain legal system, such as entering into contracts, suing, and being sued. Legal personality is a prerequisite to legal capacity, the ability of any person to amend rights. In international law, consequently, legal personality is a prerequisite for an organization to be able to sign international treaties in its own name. A holder of legal personality is called as a person, Persons are of two kinds, natural persons and juridical persons – entities such as corporations, which are treated in law as if they are persons. While human beings acquire legal personhood when they are born, juridical persons do so when they are incorporated in accordance with law, artificial personality, juridical personality, or juristic personality is the characteristic of a non-living entity regarded by law to have the status of personhood. A juridical or artificial person has a name and has certain rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities. The concept of a person is a fundamental legal fiction. It is pertinent to the philosophy of law, as it is essential to laws affecting a corporation, juridical personality allows one or more natural persons to act as a single entity for legal purposes. In many jurisdictions, artificial personality allows that entity to be considered under law separately from its individual members and they may sue and be sued, enter contracts, incur debt, and own property. Entities with legal personality may also be subjected to legal obligations. An entity with legal personality may shield its members from personal liability, in some common law jurisdictions a distinction is drawn between corporation aggregate and a corporation sole. Historically most corporations sole were ecclesiastical in nature, but a number of public offices are now formed as corporations sole. The concept of personality is not absolute. The concept of a person is now central to Western law in both common-law and civil-law countries, but it is also found in virtually every legal system. Examples are a religious officiant in that capacity, or The Crown in the Commonwealth realms, a corporation aggregate is a corporation constituted by more than one member. Municipal corporations are creatures of statute, other organizations may be created by statute as legal persons, including European economic interest groupings. Unincorporated associations, that is aggregates of two or more persons, are treated as persons in some jurisdictions but not others. Partnerships, an aggregate of two or more persons to carry on a business in common for profit and created by agreement, traditionally, partnerships did not have continuing legal personality, but many jurisdictions now treat them as having an independent legal personality
11.
Euergetism
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This was evident in the patron-client relations in ancient Rome. The modern term was coined by French historian André Boulanger and subsequently used in the works of Paul Veyne, during the second half of the 4th century BC, profound changes occurred in the financing of public institutions. Without the backing or funding from the wealthy, at least symbolically, the idea emerged that the rich people were not contributing unless required or compelled to do so. At the same time, around 355 BC, Demosthenes mentioned the lack of funding from the wealthy in the Against Leptines, at the end of the century, Demetrius Phalereus abolished the two most important Athenian liturgies. Thus, in 284/3, the elected, the poet Philippides. However, until the middle of the 2nd century BC. the Greek philanthropy did not match the definition in Veyne, as demonstrated Philip Gauthier, this is a philanthropy that takes place most often exclusively in official and civil. This dilution of the system in a Liturgy of Euergetism will be consumed as part of low Hellenistic period. Financing Cities can then be compared to that in force throughout the Roman Empire at that time, Hellenistic generosity is a social practice where rich people help out poor ones, and it appeared in the Hellenistic world for the first time. This soon became an obligation for the wealthy citizens when seeking high magistrate positions. Hellenistic generosity not only benefited panis et circenses, but also buildings and roads. Along with the name of the donator, from the 3rd century AD on, economic pressures made euergetism more difficult to practice. It eventually disappeared after Justinians death and was replaced by the churches redistribution action, baslez, Marie-Françoise, ed. Économies et sociétés - Grèce ancienne 478-88. Le monde grec aux temps classiques
12.
Roman aqueduct
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The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts in order to bring water from often distant sources into cities and towns, supplying public baths, latrines, fountains and private households. Aqueducts also provided water for mining operations, milling, farms, Aqueducts moved water through gravity alone, along a slight downward gradient within conduits of stone, brick or concrete. Most conduits were buried beneath the ground, and followed the contours of the terrain, obstructing peaks were circumvented or, less often, tunneled through. Where valleys or lowlands intervened, the conduit was carried on bridgework, or its contents fed into high-pressure lead, ceramic or stone pipes, most aqueduct systems included sedimentation tanks, which helped reduce any water-borne debris. Sluices and castella aquae regulated the supply to individual destinations, the run-off water from aqueducts drove urban water-mills, and scoured the drains and sewers. Romes first aqueduct supplied a water fountain sited at the cattle market. By the 3rd century AD, the city had aqueducts, sustaining a population of over a million in a water-extravagant economy. Most Roman aqueducts proved reliable, and durable, some were maintained into the modern era. Methods of aqueduct surveying and construction are noted by Vitruvius in his work De Architectura, the general Frontinus gives more detail in his official report on the problems, uses and abuses of Imperial Romes public water supply. Notable examples of architecture include the supporting piers of the Aqueduct of Segovia. The reliance of ancient communities upon such water resources restricted their potential growth, by the early Imperial era, the citys aqueducts supported a population of over a million, and an extravagant water supply for public amenities had become a fundamental part of Roman life. The run-off of aqueduct water scoured the sewers of cities and towns, Water from aqueducts was also used to supply villas, ornamental urban and suburban gardens, market gardens, farms and agricultural estates, the latter being the core of Romes economy and wealth. Rome had several springs within its perimeter walls but its groundwater was notoriously unpalatable, water from the river Tiber was badly affected by pollution and waterborne diseases. The citys demand for water had probably exceeded its local supplies by 312 BC, when the citys first aqueduct. The Aqua Appia was one of two major projects of the time, the other was a military road between Rome and Capua, the first leg of the so-called Appian Way. Both projects had significant strategic value, as the Third Samnite War had been under way for thirty years by that point. The road allowed rapid troop movements, and by design or fortunate coincidence, most of the Aqua Appia ran within a buried conduit and it was fed by a spring 16. A second aqueduct, the Aqua Anio Vetus, was commissioned some forty years later and its flow was more than twice that of the Aqua Appia, and it entered the city on raised arches, supplying water to higher elevations of the city
13.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
14.
Waqf
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The donated assets may be held by a charitable trust. The person making such dedication is known as waqif, a donor, in Ottoman Turkish law, and later under the British Mandate of Palestine, the waqf was defined as usufruct State land of which the State revenues are assured to pious foundations. In Sunni jurisprudence, waqf, also spelled wakf is synonymous with ḥabs, habs and similar terms are used mainly by Maliki jurists. In Twelver Shiism, ḥabs is a type of waqf. The person making the grant is called al-waqif while the endowed assests are called al-mawquf, the term waqf literally means confinement and prohibition or causing a thing to stop or stand still. Bahaeddin Yediyıldız defines the waqf as a system which comprises three elements, hayrat, akarat and waqf, there is no direct injunction of the Quran regarding Waqf, which is derived from a number of hadiths. One says, Ibn Umar reported, Umar Ibn Al-Khattab got land in Khaybar, so he came to the prophet Muhammad, the Prophet said, If you like, make the property inalienable and give the profit from it to charity. It goes on to say that Umar gave it away as alms and he gave it away for the poor, the relatives, the slaves, the jihad, the travelers and the guests. And it will not be held against him who administers it if he consumes some of its yield in a manner or feeds a friend who does not enrich himself by means of it. In another hadith, Muhammad said, When a man dies, Islamic law puts several legal conditions on the process of establishing a waqf. A waqf is a contract, therefore the founder must be of the capacity to enter into a contract, finally if a person is fatally ill, the waqf is subject to the same restrictions as a will in Islam. The property used to found a waqf must be objects of a valid contract, the object should not be illegal in Islam. Finally these objects should not already be in the public domain, thus, public property cannot be used to establish a waqf. The founder cannot also have pledged the property previously to someone else and these conditions are generally true for contracts in Islam. The property dedicated to waqf is generally immovable, such as estate, all movable goods can also form waqf, according to most Islamic jurists. The Hanafis, however, also allow most movable goods to be dedicated to a waqf with some restrictions, some jurists have argued that even gold and silver can be designated as waqf. The beneficiaries of the waqf can be persons and public utilities, the founder can specify which persons are eligible for benefit. Public utilities such as mosques, schools, bridges, graveyards, modern legislation divides the waqf as charitable causes, in which the beneficiaries are the public or the poor) and family waqf, in which the founder makes the beneficiaries his relatives
15.
Imam Reza shrine
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The Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran is a complex which contains the mausoleum of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of Twelver Shiites. It is the largest mosque in the world by dimension and the second largest by capacity, the complex is one of the tourism centers in Iran. The shrine itself covers an area of 267, 079m2 while the seven courtyards which surround it cover an area of 331, every year the ceremony of Dust Clearing is celebrated in the Imam Reza shrine. Dar-ul-Imarah or the garden of Humayd ibn Qahtaba al-Tai was a fortress in the village of Sanabad and it dates back to the era before the Islam religion. It had been placed at the road of Sanabad, Neishabour, Sarakhs, Toos. In fact, this fortress has been a place for the guards to take position and establish the security of these roads. After the demise of Harun al-Rashid, he was buried in this place, due to this historical event, the Dar-ul-Imarah was known as the Mausoleum of Haruniyyeh. The original inner building of Dar-ul-Imarah has been in fact a used by the Zoroastrians to worship. This building was demolished by the order of al-Mamun, and then it was reconstructed according to the architecture of Khorasan. Four plain and short walls, covered with a dome, were constructed around the building. Afterwards, the name of the mausoleum was changed and known as the Mashhad-ur-Reza, Mashhad literally means a place where a martyr has been buried. In 818, the Alid Imam Ali al-Ridha was murdered by the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun and was buried beside the grave of al-Mamuns father, after this event, the location was called as Mashhad al-Ridha. Shias and Sunnis began visiting his grave on pilgrimage, by the end of the 9th century a dome was built on the grave and many buildings and bazaars sprang up around it. For the next years, it has been devastated and reconstructed several times. In 993 the holy shrine was ruined by Saboktakin, a Ghaznavid king, however, in 1009, his son Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni ordered the shrine to be repaired and expanded. About 1150 Sultan Sanjar, a Seljuq king, renovated the sanctuary, later, Sultan Muhammad Khodabande, an Ilkhanate king who converted to Shiism, renovated the holy shrine around 1310. The celebrated Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta visited Mashhad in 1333 and reported that it was a town with abundant fruit trees, streams. A great dome of elegant construction surmounts the noble mausoleum, the walls being decorated with colored tiles, opposite the tomb of the Imam is the tomb of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, which is surmounted by a platform bearing chandeliers
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Tontine
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A tontine is an investment plan for raising capital, devised in the 17th century and relatively widespread in the 18th and 19th centuries. It combines features of an annuity and a lottery. Each subscriber pays a sum into the fund, and thereafter receives an annuity. As members die, their shares devolve to the other participants, on the death of the last member, the scheme is wound up. Tontines acquired a reputation, and were eventually prohibited or heavily restricted in many countries. However, in March 2017, the New York Times reported that tontines were getting fresh consideration as a way for people to get steady retirement income, tonti put his proposal to the French royal government, but after consideration it was rejected by the Parlement de Paris. The first true tontine was therefore organised in the city of Kampen in the Netherlands in 1670, the French finally established a state tontine in 1689. The English government organised a tontine in 1693, Nine further government tontines were organised in France down to 1759, four more in Britain down to 1789, and others in the Netherlands and some of the German states. Those in Britain were not fully subscribed, and in general the British schemes tended to be less popular, each investor pays a sum into the tontine. Each investor then receives annual dividends on the capital invested, as each investor dies, his or her share is reallocated among the surviving investors. This process continues until only one investor survives, each subscriber receives only dividends, the capital is never paid back. Sometimes the names in were well-known people such as kings and queens and this eased the problem of death-verification and also reduced the risk of murder etc. to improve ones chances. In a later variation, the capital devolves upon the last survivor, thus dissolving the trust and this version has often been the plot device for mysteries and detective stories. Financial inventions were patentable under French law from January 1791 until September 1792, in June 1792 a patent was issued to inventor F. P. Dousset for a new type of tontine in combination with a lottery. Louis XIV first made use of tontines in 1689 to fund military operations when he could not otherwise raise the money, the English government first issued tontines in 1693 to fund a war against France, part of the Nine Years War. Tontines soon caused problems for their governments, as the organisers tended to underestimate the longevity of the population. At first, tontine holders included men and women of all ages and this created the possibility of significant returns for the shareholders, with significant losses for the organizers. In New Zealand at the time, one of the critics of tontines had been the government
17.
Financial market participants
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There are two basic financial market participant categories, Investor vs. Speculator and Institutional vs. Retail. Action in financial markets by central banks is usually regarded as rather than participation. This equation originated from Keynesian Advocates, the theory explains that a given market may have excess cash, hence the supplier of funds may lend it, and those in need of cash may borrow the funds supplied. Hence, the equation, aggregate savings equals aggregate investments, the demand side consists of, those in need of cash flows, those in need of interim financing, those in need of long-term funds for special projects. The supply side consists of, those who have aggregate savings that can be used in favor of demand side, the origin of the savings can be local savings or foreign savings. So much pensions or savings can be invested for school buildings, orphanages, the earnings go to owner and the margin goes to the banks. When the principal and interest are added up, it will reflect the amount paid for the user of the funds, thus, an interest percentage for the cost of using the funds. An investor is any party that makes an Investment, less frequently the term is applied to parties who purchase real estate, currency, commodity derivatives, personal property, or other assets. Speculation or agiotage represents one of three roles in western financial markets, distinct from hedging, long term investing and arbitrage. Speculators in an asset may have no intention to have long term exposure to that asset, because of their sophistication, institutional investors may often participate in private placements of securities, in which certain aspects of the securities laws may be inapplicable. A retail investor is an individual investor possessing shares of a given security, Retail investors can be further divided into two categories of share ownership. A Beneficial Shareholder is an investor who holds shares of their securities in the account of a bank or broker. A Registered Shareholder is an investor who holds shares of their securities directly through the issuer or its transfer agent. Many registered shareholders have physical copies of their stock certificates, in the United States, as of 2005 about 57 million households owned stocks, and in total individual investors owned 26% of equities
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Credit union
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Credit unions operate alongside other mutuals and cooperatives engaging in cooperative banking, such as building societies. Natural-person credit unions serve individual people, as distinguished from corporate credit unions, Credit unions see themselves as different from mainstream banks, with a mission to be community-oriented and serve people, not profit. Normally, only a member of a union may deposit or borrow money. Surveys of customers at banks and credit unions have consistently shown a significantly higher customer satisfaction rate with the quality of service at credit unions, Credit unions have historically claimed to provide superior member service and to be committed to helping members improve their financial situation. In the context of financial inclusion credit unions claim to provide a range of loan. In the credit union context, not-for-profit is not the same as for a charity or similar organization. Credit unions are not-for-profit because their purpose is to serve their members rather than to maximize profits. But, unlike charities and the like, credit unions do not rely on donations, and are financial institutions that must perforce make what is, in economic terms, a small profit to remain in existence. According to the World Council of Credit Unions, a credit unions revenues must exceed its expenses and dividends in order to maintain capital. F. W. Raiffeisen wrote in 1870 that credit unions are, according to eleven of the German law of cooperatives. They accordingly form a sort of business enterprise of which the owners are the Credit Unions members. In the United States, credit unions incorporated and operating under a credit union law are tax-exempt under Section 501. Federal credit unions organized and operated in accordance with the Federal Credit Union Act are tax-exempt under Section 501, according to the World Council, at the end of 2014 there were 57,480 credit unions in 105 countries. Collectively they served 217.4 million members and oversaw US$1.79 trillion in assets, the European Association of Co-operative Banks reported 38 million members in those four countries at the end of 2010. The countries with the most credit union activity are highly diverse, several African and Latin American countries also had high credit union membership rates, as did Australia and South Korea. He went on to develop a successful urban credit union system. In 1864 Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen founded the first rural credit union in Heddesdorf in Germany, by the time of Raiffeisens death in 1888, credit unions had spread to Italy, France, the Netherlands, England, Austria, and other nations. The first credit union in North America, the Caisse Populaire de Lévis in Quebec, Canada, drawing extensively on European precedents, Desjardins developed a unique parish-based model for Quebec, the caisse populaire
19.
Investment banking
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Unlike commercial banks and retail banks, investment banks do not take deposits. From the passage of Glass–Steagall Act in 1933 until its repeal in 1999 by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, Other industrialized countries, including G7 countries, have historically not maintained such a separation. As part of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the two main lines of business in investment banking are called the sell side and the buy side. The sell side involves trading securities for cash or for other securities, the buy side involves the provision of advice to institutions that buy investment services. Private equity funds, mutual funds, life insurance companies, unit trusts, an investment bank can also be split into private and public functions with a Chinese wall separating the two to prevent information from crossing. The private areas of the deal with private insider information that may not be publicly disclosed, while the public areas, such as stock analysis. The first company to publicly traded stock was the Dutch East India Company. Investment banking has changed over the years, beginning as a form focused on underwriting security issuance. In the United States, commercial banking and investment banking were separated by the Glass–Steagall Act, the repeal led to more universal banks offering an even greater range of services. Many large commercial banks have therefore developed investment banking divisions through acquisitions, notable large banks with significant investment banks include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Barclays, and Wells Fargo. The traditional service of underwriting security issues has declined as a percentage of revenue, as far back as 1960, 70% of Merrill Lynchs revenue was derived from transaction commissions while traditional investment banking services accounted for 5%. However, Merrill Lynch was a relatively retail-focused firm with a large brokerage network, investment banking is split into front office, middle office, and back office activities. Investment banks offer services to corporations issuing securities and investors buying securities. For corporations, investment bankers offer information on when and how to place their securities on the open market, therefore, investment bankers play a very important role in issuing new security offerings. Front office is described as a revenue generating role. Markets is divided into sales and trading, and research, a pitch book of financial information is generated to market the bank to a potential M&A client, if the pitch is successful, the bank arranges the deal for the client. The investment banking division is divided into industry coverage and product coverage groups. On behalf of the bank and its clients, an investment banks primary function is buying and selling products
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Investment fund
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An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group. e. Lower transaction costs, increase the asset diversification to reduce some unsystematic risk, terminology varies with country but investment funds are often referred to as investment pools, collective investment vehicles, collective investment schemes, managed funds, or simply funds. The regulatory term is undertaking for collective investment in transferable securities, Investment funds are promoted with a wide range of investment aims either targeting specific geographic regions or specified industry sectors. Depending on the there is normally a bias towards the domestic market due to familiarity. Funds are often selected on the basis of these specified investment aims, their past investment performance, the term collective investment scheme is a legal concept deriving initially from a set of European Union Directives to regulate mutual fund investment and management. The basic aim of collective investment scheme regulation is that the products that are sold to the public are sufficiently transparent. Collective investment vehicles may be formed under company law, by legal trust or by statute, the nature of the vehicle and its limitations are often linked to its constitutional nature and the associated tax rules for the type of structure within a given jurisdiction. Typically there is, A fund manager or investment manager who manages the investment decisions, a fund administrator who manages the trading, reconciliations, valuation and unit pricing. A board of directors or trustees who safeguards the assets and ensures compliance with laws, regulations, the shareholders or unitholders who own the assets and associated income. A marketing or distribution company to promote and sell shares/units of the fund, please see below for general information on specific forms of vehicles in different jurisdictions. The net asset value or NAV is the value of a vehicles assets minus the value of its liabilities, the method for calculating this varies between vehicle types and jurisdiction and can be subject to complex regulation. An open-end fund is divided into shares which vary in price in direct proportion to the variation in value of the funds net asset value. Each time money is invested, new shares or units are created to match the prevailing price, each time shares are redeemed. In this way there is no supply or demand created for shares, a closed-end fund issues a limited number of shares in an initial public offering or through private placement. If shares are issued through an IPO, they are traded on an exchange or directly through the fund manager to create a secondary market subject to market forces. If demand for the shares is high, they may trade at a premium to net asset value, if demand is low they may trade at a discount to net asset value. Further share offerings may be made by the vehicle if demand is high although this may affect the share price, for listed funds, the added element of market forces tends to amplify the performance of the fund increasing investment risk through increased volatility. Some collective investment vehicles have the power to borrow money to further investments
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Pension fund
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A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the investors in listed. They are especially important to the market where large institutional investors dominate. The largest 300 pension funds collectively hold about $6 trillion in assets, the Federal Old-age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is the worlds largest public pension fund which oversees $2.645 trillion USD in assets. Open pension funds support at least one pension plan with no restriction on membership while closed pension funds support only pension plans that are limited to certain employees, in certain countries the distinction between public or government pension funds and private pension funds may be difficult to assess. In others, the distinction is made sharply in law, with specific requirements for administration. Provident Fund is applicable across for employees across establishments, EPF is the Largest Social Security Organisations in India with Assets well over ₹5 Lakh Crore as of 2014. Indian citizens between the age of 18-55 are eligible to join, the Financial Supervisory Authority - Private Pension is responsible for the supervision and regulation of the private pension system.06. Armed Forces Pension Fund OYAK provides its members with supplementary retirement benefits apart from the retirement fund, T. C. Emekli Sandığı/SSK. OYAK is incorporated as an entity under its own law subject to Turkish civic. OYAK while fulfilling its duties, as set in the Law, also provides its members with social services such as loans, home loans. The initial source of OYAKs funds is a compulsory 10 percent levy on the salary of Turkeys 200,000 serving officers who, together with 25,000 current pensioners. Some other Turkish private pension funds, YAPI ve KREDİ BANKASI A. Ş, mensupları Yardım ve Emekli Sandığı Vakfı AKBANK T. A. Ş. Mensupları Tekaüt Sandığı Vakfı TÜRKİYE GARANTİ BANKASI A. Ş, memur ve Müstahdemleri Emekli ve Yardım Sandığı Vakfı TÜRKİYE ODALAR BORSALAR VE BİRLİK PERSONELİ SİGORTA VE EMEKLİ SANDIĞI VAKFI TÜRKİYE İŞ BANKASI A. Ş. Mensupları Emekli Sandığı Vakfı In the United States pension funds include schemes which result in a deferral of income by employees, the United States has $24.5 trillion in retirement and pension assets as of June 30,2014. The largest 200 pension funds accounted for $4.540 trillion as of September 30,2009
22.
Prime brokerage
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The prime broker provides a centralized securities clearing facility for the hedge fund so the hedge funds collateral requirements are netted across all deals handled by the prime broker. These two features are advantageous to their clients, the prime broker benefits by earning fees on financing the clients margined long and short cash and security positions, and by charging, in some cases, fees for clearing and other services. It also earns money by rehypothecating the margined portfolios of the hedge funds currently serviced and charging interest on those borrowing securities, each client in the market of a prime broker will have certain technological needs related to the management of its portfolio. These can be as simple as daily statements or as complicated as real-time portfolio reporting, Certain prime brokers offer more specialized services to certain clients. For example, a broker may also be in the business of leasing office space to hedge funds. Risk management and consulting services may be among these, especially if the fund has just started operations. Office Space Leasing and Servicing - Certain prime brokers lease commercial real estate and these prime brokers typically provide a suite of on-site services for clients who utilize their space. This is typically called a hedge fund hotel, risk Management Advisory Services - The provision of risk analytic technology, sometimes supplemented by consulting by senior risk professionals. Additionally, the prime broker offers stock loan services, portfolio reporting, consolidated cash management, fundamentally, the advent of the prime broker freed the money manager from the more time consuming and expensive aspects of running a fund. The concept and term prime brokerage is generally attributed to the U. S. broker-dealer Furman Selz in the late 1970s, however, the first hedge fund operation is attributed to Alfred Winslow Jones in 1949. At this nascent stage, hedge funds were much smaller than they are today and were mostly U. S. domestic long-short equities funds, Prime brokerage business was created by Merrill Lynchs London office in the late 1980s. Post the 2007 -09 financial crisis new entrants came to the market with custody-based prime brokerage offerings, in addition, prime brokers supplemented their operational function by providing portfolio reporting, initially by messenger, then by fax and today over the web. As of 2006, the most successful investment banks each report over two billion dollars in annual revenue directly attributed to their prime brokerage operations. Counterparty diversification saw the largest flows of client assets out of Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the banks which captured these flows to the greatest degree were Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, and Deutsche Bank. During these market changes, HSBC launched a brokerage business in 2009 called HSBC Prime Services. The prime brokerage landscape has changed since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. This was one of factors that led to the massive deleveraging of capital markets during the Financial Crisis of 2008. Upon Lehmans collapse, investors realized that no prime broker was too big to fail and spread their counterparty risk across several prime brokerages and this trend towards multi-prime brokerage is also not without its problems
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Finance
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Finance is a field that deals with the study of investments. It includes the dynamics of assets and liabilities over time under conditions of different degrees of uncertainty, Finance can also be defined as the science of money management. Finance aims to price assets based on their level and their expected rate of return. Finance can be broken into three different sub-categories, public finance, corporate finance and personal finance. g, health and property insurance, investing and saving for retirement. Personal finance may also involve paying for a loan, or debt obligations, net worth is a persons balance sheet, calculated by adding up all assets under that persons control, minus all liabilities of the household, at one point in time. Household cash flow totals up all the sources of income within a year. From this analysis, the financial planner can determine to what degree, adequate protection, the analysis of how to protect a household from unforeseen risks. These risks can be divided into the following, liability, property, death, disability, health, some of these risks may be self-insurable, while most will require the purchase of an insurance contract. Determining how much insurance to get, at the most cost effective terms requires knowledge of the market for personal insurance, business owners, professionals, athletes and entertainers require specialized insurance professionals to adequately protect themselves. Since insurance also enjoys some tax benefits, utilizing insurance investment products may be a piece of the overall investment planning. Tax planning, typically the income tax is the single largest expense in a household, managing taxes is not a question of if you will pay taxes, but when and how much. Government gives many incentives in the form of tax deductions and credits, most modern governments use a progressive tax. Typically, as ones income grows, a marginal rate of tax must be paid. Understanding how to take advantage of the tax breaks when planning ones personal finances can make a significant impact in which it can later save you money in the long term. Investment and accumulation goals, planning how to accumulate enough money - for large purchases, major reasons to accumulate assets include, purchasing a house or car, starting a business, paying for education expenses, and saving for retirement. Achieving these goals requires projecting what they will cost, and when you need to withdraw funds that will be necessary to be able to achieve these goals, a major risk to the household in achieving their accumulation goal is the rate of price increases over time, or inflation. Using net present value calculators, the planner will suggest a combination of asset earmarking. In order to overcome the rate of inflation, the investment portfolio has to get a higher rate of return, managing these portfolio risks is most often accomplished using asset allocation, which seeks to diversify investment risk and opportunity
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Financial market
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A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities, commodities, and other fungible items of value at low transaction costs and at prices that reflect supply and demand. Securities include stocks and bonds, and commodities include precious metals or agricultural products, in economics, typically, the term market means the aggregate of possible buyers and sellers of a certain good or service and the transactions between them. The term market is used for what are more strictly exchanges, organizations that facilitate the trade in financial securities. This may be a location or an electronic system. Another common use of the term is as a catchall for all the markets in the financial sector, capital markets which to consist of, Stock markets, which provide financing through the issuance of shares or common stock, and enable the subsequent trading thereof. Bond markets, which provide financing through the issuance of bonds, commodity markets, which facilitate the trading of commodities. Money markets, which provide short term debt financing and investment, derivatives markets, which provide instruments for the management of financial risk. Futures markets, which provide standardized forward contracts for trading products at some future date, Foreign exchange markets, which facilitate the trading of foreign exchange. Spot market Interbanks market The capital markets may also be divided into primary markets, newly formed securities are bought or sold in primary markets, such as during initial public offerings. Secondary markets allow investors to buy and sell existing securities, the transactions in primary markets exist between issuers and investors, while secondary market transactions exist among investors. Liquidity is an aspect of securities that are traded in secondary markets. Liquidity refers to the ease with which a security can be sold without a loss of value, securities with an active secondary market mean that there are many buyers and sellers at a given point in time. Investors benefit from liquid securities because they can sell their assets whenever they want, Financial markets attract funds from investors and channel them to corporations—they thus allow corporations to finance their operations and achieve growth. Money markets allow firms to borrow funds on a term basis. Without financial markets, borrowers would have difficulty finding lenders themselves, intermediaries such as banks, Investment Banks, and Boutique Investment Banks can help in this process. Banks take deposits from those who have money to save and they can then lend money from this pool of deposited money to those who seek to borrow. Banks popularly lend money in the form of loans and mortgages, a good example of a financial market is a stock exchange. A company can raise money by selling shares to investors and its shares can be bought or sold
25.
Corporate finance
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The primary goal of corporate finance is to maximize or increase shareholder value. Investment analysis is concerned with the setting of criteria about which value-adding projects should receive investment funding, the terms corporate finance and corporate financier are also associated with investment banking. The typical role of an investment bank is to evaluate the financial needs. Thus, the corporate finance and corporate financier may be associated with transactions in which capital is raised in order to create, develop. Financial management overlaps with the function of the Accounting profession. The primary goal of management is to maximize or to continually increase shareholder value. Managers of growth companies will use most of the capital resources. When companies reach maturity levels within their industry, managers of companies will use surplus cash to payout dividends to shareholders. Choosing between investment projects will be based upon several inter-related criteria, Corporate management seeks to maximize the value of the firm by investing in projects which yield a positive net present value when valued using an appropriate discount rate in consideration of risk. These projects must also be financed appropriately, if no growth is possible by the company and excess cash surplus is not needed to the firm, then financial theory suggests that management should return some or all of the excess cash to shareholders. This capital budgeting is the planning of value-adding, long-term corporate financial projects relating to investments funded through, Management must allocate the firms limited resources between competing opportunities. Investments should be made on the basis of value-added to the future of the corporation, projects that increase a firms value may include a wide variety of different types of investments, including but not limited to, expansion policies, or mergers and acquisitions. Achieving the goals of corporate finance requires that any corporate investment be financed appropriately, the sources of financing are, generically, capital self-generated by the firm and capital from external funders, obtained by issuing new debt and equity. As above, since both hurdle rate and cash flows will be affected, the mix will impact the valuation of the firm. Financing a project through debt results in a liability or obligation that must be serviced, equity financing is less risky with respect to cash flow commitments, but results in a dilution of share ownership, control and earnings. Management must attempt to match the long-term financing mix to the assets being financed as closely as possible, other techniques, such as securitization, or hedging using interest rate- or credit derivatives, are also common. See Asset liability management, Treasury management, Credit risk, Interest rate risk, however economists have developed a set of alternative theories about how managers allocate a corporations finances. Also, Capital structure substitution theory hypothesizes that management manipulates the capital such that earnings per share are maximized
26.
Personal finance
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The earliest known research in personal finance was done in 1920 by Hazel Kyrk. Her dissertation at University of Chicago laid the foundation of consumer economics, margaret Reid, a professor of Home Economics at the same university, is recognized as one of the pioneers in the study of consumer behavior and Household behavior. In 1947, Herbert A. Simon, a Nobel laureate, suggested that a decision maker did not always make the best financial decision because of limited educational resources and personal inclinations. Therefore, personal education is needed to help an individual or a family make rational financial decisions throughout their life. Before 1990, mainstream economists and business faculty paid little attention to personal finance and these institutions have published several works in journals such as The Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning and the Journal of Personal Finance. Research into personal finance is based on theories such as social exchange theory. Attendances of the two societies mainly come from faculty and graduates from business and home economics colleges, AFCPE has since offered several certifications for professionals in this field such as Accredited Financial Counselor and Certified Housing Counselors. Meanwhile, AFS cooperates with Certified Financial Planner, the educational programmes are frequently known as financial literacy. However, there was no standardised curriculum for personal finance education until after the 2008 financial crisis, the United States President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability was set up in 2008 in order to encourage financial literacy among the American people. It also stressed the importance of developing a standard in the field of financial education, the key component of personal finance is financial planning, which is a dynamic process that requires regular monitoring and reevaluation. In general, it involves five steps, Assessment, A persons financial situation is assessed by compiling simplified versions of financial statements including balance sheets, a personal balance sheet lists the values of personal assets, along with personal liabilities. A personal income statement lists personal income and expenses, goal setting, Having multiple goals is common, including a mix of short- and long-term goals. For example, a goal would be to retire at age 65 with a personal net worth of $1,000,000. Setting financial goals helps to direct financial planning, goal setting is done with an objective to meet specific financial requirements. Plan creation, The financial plan details how to accomplish the goals and it could include, for example, reducing unnecessary expenses, increasing the employment income, or investing in the stock market. Execution, Execution of a financial plan often requires discipline and perseverance, many people obtain assistance from professionals such as accountants, financial planners, investment advisers, and lawyers. Monitoring and reassessment, As time passes, the plan is monitored for possible adjustments or reassessments. Net worth is a balance sheet, calculated by adding up all assets under that persons control, minus all liabilities of the household
27.
Public finance
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Public finance is the study of the role of the government in the economy. The purview of public finance is considered to be threefold, governmental effects on efficient allocation of resources, distribution of income, the proper role of government provides a starting point for the analysis of public finance. In theory, under circumstances, private markets will allocate goods. If private markets were able to provide efficient outcomes and if the distribution of income were socially acceptable, in many cases, however, conditions for private market efficiency are violated. For example, if people can enjoy the same good at the same time. National defense is one example of consumption, or of a public good. Market failure occurs when private markets do not allocate goods or services efficiently, the existence of market failure provides an efficiency-based rationale for collective or governmental provision of goods and services. Externalities, public goods, informational advantages, strong economies of scale, Public provision via a government or a voluntary association, however, is subject to other inefficiencies, termed government failure. Under broad assumptions, government decisions about the efficient scope and level of activities can be separated from decisions about the design of taxation systems. In practice, government budgeting or public budgeting is substantially more complicated, Government can pay for spending by borrowing, although borrowing is a method of distributing tax burdens through time rather than a replacement for taxes. A deficit is the difference between government spending and revenues, the accumulation of deficits over time is the total public debt. Deficit finance allows governments to smooth tax burdens over time, deficits can also narrow the options of successor governments. Public finance is closely connected to issues of distribution and social equity. Governments can reallocate income through transfer payments or by designing tax systems that treat high-income and low-income households differently, the public choice approach to public finance seeks to explain how self-interested voters, politicians, and bureaucrats actually operate, rather than how they should operate. Collection of sufficient resources from the economy in an appropriate manner along with allocating, resource generation, resource allocation and expenditure management are the essential components of a public financial management system. Public Finance Management basically deals with all aspects of resource mobilization, just as managing finances is a critical function of management in any organization, similarly public finance management is an essential part of the governance process. Public finance management includes resource mobilization, prioritization of programmes, the process, efficient management of resources. Rising aspirations of people are placing more demands on financial resources, at the same time, the emphasis of the citizenry is on value for money, thus making public finance management increasingly vital
28.
Financial regulation
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This may be handled by either a government or non-government organization. Financial regulation has also influenced the structure of banking sectors, by decreasing borrowing costs, reduction of financial crime – reducing the extent to which it is possible for a regulated business to be used for a purpose connected with financial crime. Regulating foreign participation in the financial markets, ati mathunzi // sup // Acts empower organizations, government or non-government, to monitor activities and enforce actions. There are various setups and combinations in place for the regulatory structure around the global. Leaf parts are in any case, Exchange acts ensure that trading on the exchanges is conducted in a proper manner, most prominent the pricing process, execution and settlement of trades, direct and efficient trade monitoring. Financial regulators ensure that companies and market participants comply with various regulations under the trading acts. The trading acts demands that listed companies publish regular financial reports, whereas market participants are required to Publish major shareholder notifications. Asset management supervision or investment acts ensures the frictionless operation of those vehicles, Banking acts lay down rules for banks which they have to observe when they are being established and when they are carrying on their business. These rules are designed to prevent unwelcome developments that might disrupt the functioning of the banking system. Thus ensuring a strong and efficient banking system, the following is a short listing of regulatory authorities in various jurisdictions, for a more complete listing, please see list of financial regulatory authorities by country. Sometimes more than one institution regulates and supervises the banking market, normally because, apart from regulatory authorities, the Eurozone countries are forming a Single Supervisory Mechanism under the European Central Bank as a prelude to Banking union. There are also associations of financial regulatory authorities, in essence, they forced European banks, and, more importantly, the European Central Bank itself e. g. Pr. ISBN 978-0-691-15264-6 Simpson, D. Meeks, G. Klumpes, P. & Andrews, some cost-benefit issues in financial regulation
29.
Private placement
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Private placement is a funding round of securities which are sold not through a public offering, but rather through a private offering, mostly to a small number of chosen investors. PIPE deals are one type of private placement, SEDA is also a form of private placement. They are often a source of capital than a public offering. Most private placements are offered under the Rules known as Regulation D, different rules under Regulation D provide stipulations for offering a Private Placement, such as required financial criteria for investors or solicitation allowances. Common exemptions from the Securities Act of 1933 allow a number of accredited investors to purchase securities in an offering. Generally, accredited investors are those with a net worth in excess of $1 million or annual income exceeding $200,000 or $300,000 combined with a spouse, under these exemptions, no more than 35 non-accredited investors may participate in a private placement. In most cases, all investors must have sufficient financial knowledge and experience to be capable of evaluating the risks, thomson Reuters provides annual and semiannual rankings of private placement agencies by capital raised. United States Securities and Exchange Commission – Official site
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Private equity
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In finance, private equity is a type of equity and one of the asset classes consisting of equity securities and debt in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange. A private equity investment will generally be made by an equity firm. Bloomberg Businessweek has called private equity a rebranding of leveraged-buyout firms after the 1980s, common investment strategies in private equity include, leveraged buyouts, venture capital, growth capital, distressed investments and mezzanine capital. In a typical leveraged-buyout transaction, a private-equity firm buys majority control of an existing or mature firm and this is distinct from a venture-capital or growth-capital investment, in which the investors invest in young, growing or emerging companies, and rarely obtain majority control. Private equity is often grouped into a broader category called private capital, generally used to describe capital supporting any long-term. The strategies private equity firms may use are as follows, leveraged buyout being the most important, the companies involved in these transactions are typically mature and generate operating cash flows. Leveraged buyouts involve a financial sponsor agreeing to an acquisition without itself committing all the capital required for the acquisition, to do this, the financial sponsor will raise acquisition debt which ultimately looks to the cash flows of the acquisition target to make interest and principal payments. Acquisition debt in an LBO is often non-recourse to the sponsor and has no claim on other investments managed by the financial sponsor. Historically the debt portion of a LBO will range from 60%–90% of the purchase price, between 2000–2005 debt averaged between 59. 4% and 67. 9% of total purchase price for LBOs in the United States. A private equity fund say for example, ABC Capital II, to this it adds $2bn of equity – money from its own partners and from limited partners. With this $11bn it buys all the shares of an underperforming company and it replaces the senior management in XYZ Industrial, and they set out to streamline it. The workforce is reduced, some assets are sold off, etc, the objective is to increase the value of the company for an early sale. The stock market is experiencing a market, and XYZ Industrial is sold two years after the buy-out for $13bn, yielding a profit of $2bn. The original loan can now be paid off with interest of say $0. 5bn, the remaining profit of $1. 5bn is shared among the partners. Taxation of such gains is at capital gains rates, notes, The lenders can insure against default by syndicating the loan to spread the risk, or by buying credit default swaps or selling collateralised debt obligations from/to other institutions. Often the loan/equity is not paid off after sale but left on the books of the company for it to pay off over time and this can be advantageous since the interest is typically offsettable against the profits of the company, thus reducing, or even eliminating, tax. Most buyout deals are much smaller, the average purchase in 2013 was $89m. The target company does not have to be floated on the stockmarket, buy-out operations can go wrong and in such cases the loss is increased by leverage, just as the profit is if all goes well
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Commodity
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In economics, a commodity is a marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services, the word commodity came into use in English in the 15th century, from the French commodité, amenity, convenience. Going further back, the French word derives from the Latin commoditas, meaning suitability, convenience, the Latin word commodus meant variously appropriate, proper measure, time, or condition, and advantage, benefit. The term commodity is specifically used for a good or service when the demand for it has no qualitative differentiation across a market. In other words, a commodity good or service has full or partial but substantial fungibility, that is, the market treats its instances as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. As the saying goes, From the taste of wheat, it is not possible to tell who produced it, a Russian serf, petroleum and copper are other examples of such commodities, their supply and demand being a part of one universal market. Items such as systems, on the other hand, have many aspects of product differentiation, such as the brand, the user interface. The demand for one type of stereo may be larger than demand for another. In contrast, one of the characteristics of a commodity good is that its price is determined as a function of its market as a whole, well-established physical commodities have actively traded spot and derivative markets. Generally, these are basic resources and agricultural products such as ore, sugar. Soft commodities are goods that are grown, while hard commodities are ones that are extracted through mining, there is another important class of energy commodities which includes electricity, gas, coal and oil. Electricity has the characteristic that it is usually uneconomical to store, hence. Commoditization occurs as a goods or services market loses differentiation across its supply base, as such, goods that formerly carried premium margins for market participants have become commodities, such as generic pharmaceuticals and DRAM chips. Following this trend, nanomaterials are emerging from carrying premium profit margins for market participants to a status of commodification, there is a spectrum of commoditization, rather than a binary distinction of commodity versus differentiable product. Many products degree of commoditization depends on the mentality and means. For example, milk, eggs, and notebook paper are not differentiated by many customers, for them, other customers take into consideration other factors besides price, such as environmental sustainability and animal welfare. This is a list of companies trading globally in commodities, descending by size as of October 28,2011, on a commodity exchange, it is the underlying standard stated in the contract that defines the commodity, not any quality inherent in a specific producers product. Commodities exchanges include, Bourse Africa Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Chicago Board of Trade Chicago Mercantile Exchange Dalian Commodity Exchange Euronext and these markets will quickly respond to changes in supply and demand to find an equilibrium price and quantity
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Asset manager
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Asset management, broadly defined, refers to any system that monitors and maintains things of value to an entity or group. It may apply to both tangible assets such as buildings and to intangible assets such as capital, intellectual property. Asset management is a process of deploying, operating, maintaining, upgrading. The term is most commonly used in the world to describe people. These include, for example, investment managers that manage the assets of a pension fund, the most common usage of the term asset manager refers to investment management, the sector of the financial services industry that manages investment funds and segregated client accounts. An asset management is a part of a company which comprises experts who manage money. Operating and sustainment of assets in a constrained budget environment require a prioritization scheme, as a way of illustration, the recent development of renewable energy has seen the rise of effective asset managers involved in the management of solar systems. These teams are more and more teaming-up with financial asset managers in order to offer turn key solutions to investors. Software asset management is one kind of asset management. It is related to asset health management, infrastructure asset management expands on this theme in relation primarily to public sector, utilities, property and transport systems. An example in which public asset management is used is land-use development, an EAM requires an asset registry combined with a computerized maintenance management system. All public assets are interconnected and share proximity, possible through the use of information systems. A GIS platform combined with information of both the hard and soft assets helps to remove the traditional silos of structured municipal functions, the GIS platform is only an assisting tool, asset managers need to make informed decisions about their assets in order to fulfill their organizational goals. List of asset management firms P2P Asset Management Robo-advisor Baird, G, defining Public Asset Management for Municipal Water Utilities. Journal American Water Works Association May 2011,103,5,30, www. awwa. org
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Endowment fund
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A financial endowment is a donation of money or property to a nonprofit organization for the ongoing support of that organization. An endowment may come with stipulations regarding its usage, the total value of an institutions investments is often referred to as the institutions endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust. Among the institutions that commonly manage endowments are academic institutions, cultural institutions, service organizations, the earliest endowed chairs were those established by the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius in Athens in AD176. Aurelius created one endowed chair for each of the schools of philosophy, Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism. Later, similar endowments were set up in other major cities of the Empire. Today, the University of Glasgow has fifteen Regius Professorships, private individuals soon adopted the practice of endowing professorships. Isaac Newton held the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge beginning in 1669, unrestricted endowment can be used in any way the recipient chooses to carry out its mission. Term endowment funds stipulate that all or part of the principal may be expended only after the expiration of a period of time or occurrence of a specified event. Quasi endowment funds must retain the purpose and intent as specified by the donor or source of the original funds, Endowment revenue can be restricted by donors to serve many purposes. Endowed professorships or scholarships restricted to a subject are common. Ignoring the restriction is called invading the endowment, but change of circumstance or financial duress like bankruptcy can preclude carrying out the donors intent. A court can alter the use of restricted endowment under a doctrine called cy-près meaning to find an alternative as near as possible to the donors intent, the restricted/unrestricted distinction focuses on the use of the funds, see quasi-endowment below for a distinction about whether principal can be spent. Academic institutions, such as colleges and universities, will control a endowment fund that finances a portion of the operating or capital requirements of the institution. In addition to an endowment fund, each university may also control a number of restricted endowments that are intended to fund specific areas within the institution. The most common examples are endowed professorships, and endowed scholarships or fellowships, in the United States, the endowment is often integral to the financial health of educational institutions. Alumni or friends of institutions sometimes contribute capital to the endowment, the endowment funding culture is strong in the United States and Canada but less pronounced overseas, with the exceptions of Cambridge and Oxford universities. Endowment funds have also created to support secondary and elementary school districts in several states in the United States. An endowed professorship is a position permanently paid for with the revenue from an endowment fund set up for that purpose
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Sovereign wealth fund
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Most SWFs are funded by revenues from commodity exports or from foreign-exchange reserves held by the central bank. By historic convention, the United States Social Security Trust Fund, other sovereign wealth funds are simply the state savings that are invested by various entities for the purposes of investment return, and that may not have a significant role in fiscal management. These are assets of the nations that are typically held in domestic. Such investment management entities may be set up as official investment companies, state funds, or sovereign funds. There have been attempts to distinguish funds held by sovereign entities from foreign-exchange reserves held by central banks, Sovereign wealth funds can be characterized as maximizing long-term return, with foreign exchange reserves serving short-term currency stabilization, and liquidity management. Many central banks in recent years possess reserves massively in excess of needs for liquidity or foreign exchange management. Moreover, it is believed most have diversified hugely into assets other than short-term, highly liquid monetary ones. Some central banks have begun buying equities, or derivatives of differing ilk. The term sovereign wealth fund was first used in 2005 by Andrew Rozanov in an article entitled, some of them have grabbed attention making bad investments in several Wall Street financial firms such as Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch. These firms needed a cash infusion due to losses resulting from mismanagement, SWFs invest in a variety of asset classes such as stocks, bonds, real estate, private equity and hedge funds. Many sovereign funds are directly investing in real estate. In the first half of 2014, global sovereign wealth fund direct deals amounted to $50.02 bil according to the SWFI, Sovereign wealth funds have existed for more than a century, but since 2000, the number of sovereign wealth funds has increased dramatically. The first SWFs were non-Federal U. S. state funds established in the century to fund specific public services. The U. S. state of Texas was thus the first to establish such a scheme, the Permanent School Fund was created in 1854 to benefit primary and secondary schools, with the Permanent University Fund following in 1876 to benefit universities. The PUF was endowed with lands, the ownership of which the state retained by terms of the 1845 annexation treaty between the Republic of Texas and the United States. While the PSF was first funded by an appropriation from the state legislature, the first SWF established for a sovereign state is the Kuwait Investment Authority, a commodity SWF created in 1953 from oil revenues before Kuwait gained independence from the United Kingdom. According to many estimates, Kuwaits fund is now worth approximately US$600 billion, another early registered SWFs is the Revenue Equalization Reserve Fund of Kiribati. Created in 1956, when the British administration of the Gilbert Islands in Micronesia put a levy on the export of used in fertilizer
