A Dictionary of Finance

A big part of finance (and life) is about trying to figure out what will happen in the future. Will the market go up? Will interest rates drop? Take a look into the future with an exclusive sneak peak at our new podcast Future Europe.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why do some companies decide not to sell shares on public exchanges? And who buys private equity? A Dictionary of Finance finds out. We also learn what "love money" is. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From hospitals to schools and toll roads, project finance can be a valuable way to handle risk. Here’s how project finance works. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do banks track possible fraud? Take a look inside bank fraud investigations and forensic accounting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You don’t need a Ph. D to run bank risk models. But it helps. So A Dictionary of Finance got two superterrific scientists to explain. It’s important because bank risk models are central to the assessment of financial risk by banks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Find out how macroeconomics works with an overview of Adam Smith and the invisible hand, the Keynesian approach and the Chicago school. Macro (big) is the opposite of micro (small). So macroeconomics is the opposite of microfinance, right? Sorry, things are never that simple in banking. Listen to our episode on microfinance to see what that’s all about. And listen to this episode so you’ll know ho...

The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) hits a big target today. We mark the delivery of €315 billion in investment through this programme by turning A Dictionary of Finance into an EFSI podcast with Iliyana Tsanova, deputy managing director of EFSI. She lays out the reasoning behind the programme, which was created as part of Europe’s response to the global financial crisis. Administer...

If you want to know how mergers and acquisitions work, you’d best ask a lawyer. Because there are legions of them involved in any M&A deal (as mergers and acquisitions are known). We hear from two lawyers with extensive experience in M&A, as well as other aspects of corporate law and equity financing, about exactly how mergers and acquisitions work. Alexandra Slack, senior legal counsel at...

Let’s face it, people don’t like bankers. But that’s because they don’t know about social finance. On this week’s episode of ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’ we hear about social finance, which tackles social issues such as migration or the integration of prisoners into society. Listen, because it will make you feel warm and fuzzy. The episode also shows you how to get financing for your business throu...

It took us 50-plus episodes of ‘A Dictionary of Finance’ podcast to realize we haven’t covered some of the very basics: terminology surrounding loans, our bread and butter. So, Matt morphed into a sock-tycoon trying to get a loan from the European Investment Bank, with Allar acting as his not-so-knowledgeable lawyer. Explaining the loan terms are Garbiela Barufi, EIB loan officer for corporates in...

Circular economy is an economic system which contrasts with the linear economy. In the linear economy, companies extract natural resources, make something out of them, pass the product on to consumers for use, only for the product eventually to be discarded. In the circular economy, producers and consumers avoid waste and extracting new natural resources. Instead, they reuse/repair products. Circu...

Imagine you are shopping for a new car—and not just based on the colour. You might consider the number of people it fits (especially if you have kids, despite initially warming to the idea of a convertible coupé), the mileage, the CO2 emissions (if you still want to be admitted to within Paris city limits in a couple of years), how fast it can go, the crash test results, and many other metrics. Tu...

In preparing this podcast which aims to answer the question what is banking compliance, we naturally engaged in some deep research on the subject. So, on Wikipedia we discovered that in mechanical science compliance is the opposite of stiffness, i.e. flexibility, measured in metres per newton. Which may sound confusing, because in finance and banking, compliance is not well known for its flexibili...

If you had the option of signing a contract today to buy a scoop of ice cream from me in one month, and to pay 90% of the price of a loaf of bread on that day for it, would you take it? If so, you and I have just entered into the derivatives business. That is, if I understood correctly what Julien Glachon, financial risk management officer in the derivatives division of the European Investment Ban...

Pay attention, credit risk management newbies: the expected loss equals the probability of default times the exposure at default times the haircut. Now you may say: “What?!” But that’s only because you haven’t listened to this week’s episode of the European Investment Bank ’s podcast ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’. In it, EIB credit risk management officer Gabriela Manciu explains everything eloquent...

If your familiarity with Alexander Hamilton ends with the musical, you may want to go back to last week’s episode of ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’. In it, the first part of our Story of the Euro, Aldo Romani, managerial advisor in the euro division of our capital markets directorate, described his recipe for a common currency: common debt. Without common debt, one could argue, if one state using a s...

337 million people can’t be wrong, right? That’s how many people live in countries that have adopted the euro as their currency. But the history of the euro is rather short—so far. And as our guests this week, senior economist in the economic studies division at the European Investment Bank Laurent Maurin and Aldo Romani, managerial advisor in the euro divison of our capital markets directorate po...

If there's one thing Mideast countries need, it's potable water. Thanks to a series of technical assistancestudies managed by the European Investment Bank , the Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline will be a vital solution to the water crisis. Technical assistance brought the pipeline to this advanced stage. Water engineer Harald Schölzel and water economist Edouard Pérard came on A Dictionary of Finance pod...

IRR (Internal rate of return) indicates the comparative profitability of a possible investment by taking into account all outgoing and incoming cash flows from an investment over the investment period.  IRR is one of the most common metrics by which investors judge funds. So naturally your hosts on ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’ podcast, Matt and Allar, wanted to find out what exactly it tells y...

In this week’s episode of ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’ podcast by the European Investment Bank we talk about the intersection of the private and the public sector in development finance. Specifically, we talk about how the public investment and development banks make projects bankable for the private sector. And make themselves obsolete in the process! As Aglaé Touchard-Le Drian, investment officer...

You—yes you—have been the subject of a KYC examination. No, not by your doctor. By your bank. KYC stands for Know Your Customer, Know Your Client or (in the case of a bank) Know Your Counterparty. It is the initial process by which a bank ensures that its client is not involved in money laundering or other activities that are illegal or could damage the bank’s reputation. If you’ve ever opened a b...

Learn about the social and business reasons for the “technical assistance” that helps companies and public institutions make their projects bankable. Technical assistance helps make projects bankable by preparing documents, carrying out studies, examining financing alternatives and assisting with contracts, among other things. The aim is to prepare a project to deliver on the purposes for which it...

Completely by coincidence, the April 1 episode of ‘ A Dictionary of Finance ’ podcast by the European Investment Bank starts with a comedy sketch acted by Ildiko Buruts, head of the contract reviews and amendments unit, and Christian Kyster, head of the loan administration unit at the Bank. For your listening pleasure, they present a hilarious anecdote about the back office! We invited Christian a...

If you were anything like us, you imagined the treasury being something like Uncle Scrooge’s pool of coins in Duck Tales, into which he would dive regularly (and, mysteriously, not causing himself any injuries). You might be surprised to find out the ultimate goal of the treasury is to end every day with zero in cash. This is especially impressive given the amounts of money that passes through the...

A fund of funds gives investors a diverse portfolio and gives fund managers long-term capital to invest. There are three phases to the lifetime of a fund of funds: Fundraising, which takes 12 to 18 months The investment period, where the fund makes new investments over the course of about five years The divestment period, during which the fund exits its investments, takes its profits and returns t...