Glossary
What will I find in this section?
Technical terms, unfortunately, cannot always be avoided – particularly when it comes to complex topics such as monetary policy. This is why we have compiled a glossary with a wide range of terms, arranged in alphabetical order and each with a short explanation.
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Used to record money and asset holdings and movements. Customer accounts with banks are used to settle all accounts receivable and payable. The customer can access credit balances or existing credit lines in a number of ways (cash, cheque, direct debit, transfer). An account statement provides the customer with details of the account balance.
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The account information service is an online service for providing consolidated information on one or more payment service user accounts held with another or several other payment service providers. With the revision of the Payment Services Directive (PSD2), account information services are defined as payment services. The purpose of this service is to provide users with a complete overview of their financial situation at a given point in time. This service is sometimes also offered by primary banks. With the account holder’s approval, it is possible to combine accounts held with different banks on the primary bank’s online banking platform.
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The German Act to Modernise Accounting Law (Bilanzrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz, or BilMoG) modifies HGB accounting rules (accounting standards in accordance with the German Commercial Code) by moderately harmonising them with International Financial Reporting Standards.
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AnaCredit stands for "analytical credit datasets" and is a credit database containing detailed information on individual bank loans in the euro area. Data on loans to households are not collected. AnaCredit is being set up by the European Central Bank, the national central banks of the euro area and some central banks of non-euro area countries.
Due to the high granularity of the data it contains and the Europe-wide harmonised definition of credit, AnaCredit will make possible, for the first time, analyses that support a number of major Eurosystem central bank tasks. Among other things, this will allow AnaCredit to contribute to the monitoring of financial stability and be of assistance in monetary-policy decision-making. -
An annuity loan is a form of credit with fixed payment flows to the lender across the entire term of the loan. The repayment amounts (instalments) are typically paid monthly and made up of principal and interest components. As the outstanding balance of the loan diminishes over time, the interest component of the instalment goes down while the principal component increases. Real estate loans are often structured as annuity loans.
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Arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of price differences in different markets for identical items or financial products. Arbitrage transactions are largely risk-free as the purchase (on the cheaper market) and the sale (on the more expensive market) can be effected simultaneously. Arbitrage transactions have the effect of causing prices in different markets to converge, such as the price of an equity share traded both in Frankfurt and London.
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The asset purchase programme (APP) was adopted in January 2015 and can be designated as a form of quantitative easing. This is taken to mean the purchase of debt securities by the central bank for monetary policy purposes with the aim of lowering market interest rate levels and thus easing the monetary policy stance. It initially comprised three components: the third covered bond purchase programme (CBPP3), the asset-backed securities purchase programme (ABSPP) and the public sector purchase programme (PSPP). The corporate sector purchase programme (CSPP) was added as a further component in June 2016. Net asset purchases under the asset purchase programme (APP) ended as of 1 July 2022. Since then the portfolio declined, as the Eurosystem finally no longer reinvested maturing securities.
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Asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) is a short-term debt security that normally has a maturity of between three and nine months. It is backed by a portfolio of assets (eg credit claims) and is typically issued by special-purpose vehicles that have bought the underlying assets from banks.
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The asset-backed securities purchase programme (ABSPP) was adopted in conjunction with the third covered bond purchase programme (CBPP3) by the ECB Governing Council in September 2014 and has likewise been a component of the asset purchase programme (APP) since January 2015. Net asset purchases under the asset purchase programme (APP) ended as of 1 July 2022. The Governing Council intends to continue reinvesting, in full, the principal payments from maturing securities purchased under the APP as long as necessary to maintain an appropriate monetary policy stance.
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An asset-backed security (ABS) is a security that is backed by credit claims such as building loans, auto loans or credit card receivables. An ABS arises when a bank sells such assets to a special-purpose vehicle, which finances its operations through the sale of those asset-backed securities. The special-purpose vehicle essentially uses the cash flows from the underlying credit claims to make interest and principal payments to investors. Issuers often subdivide the securities into several classes – also known as tranches – with varying levels of risk. In the event of a default on payments from the underlying asset pool, losses are not distributed evenly but rather according to a specific order in between the tranches. The initial losses are absorbed by the higher-risk tranches, for which neither interest nor principal payments are then made. If this is sufficient to cover the losses, the interest and principal payments remained unchanged for holders of the lower-risk tranches.
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Assets refers to the sum of the assets of an enterprise or bank. It is shown on the left side of the balance sheet (assets side).
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Automatic stabilisers are countercyclical revenue and expenditure items by general government that serve to dampen or stimulate the economy. Their impact is "automatic" because they do not need to be triggered by parliamentary or government decisions. One example is unemployment insurance: payouts increase in a recession because there are more people out of work. This tends to boost macroeconomic demand, counteracting the recession and stabilising the economy.
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Autonomous factors are those items on the Eurosystem's central bank balance sheets which are not attributable to monetary policy operations or the minimum reserves of commercial banks, both of which are under its direct control. Autonomous factors comprise inter alia the items "Banknotes in circulation", the volume of which is driven by "autonomous" demand from the economy for banknotes, "Government deposits" and "Capital and reserves".