What is a Rating Agency? A rating agency is a company that assesses the financial strength of companies and government entities, especially their ability to meet principal and interest payments on their debts. The rating assigned to a given debt shows an agency’s level of confidence that the borrower will honor its debt obligations as agreed….
What is DuPont Analysis? In the 1920s, the management at DuPont Corporation developed a model called DuPont Analysis for a detailed assessment of the company’s profitability. DuPont Analysis is a tool that may help us to avoid misleading conclusions regarding a company’s profitability. The analysis of a company’s profitability involves some nuances. For example, in…
What is a Lender of Last Resort? A lender of last resort is the provider of liquidity to financial institutions that are experiencing financial difficulties. In most developing and developed countries, the lender of last resort is the country’s central bank. The responsibility of the central bank is to prevent bank runs or panics from…
What is Senior and Subordinated Debt? Senior and subordinated debt refers to their rank in a company’s capital stack. In the event of a liquidation, senior debt is paid out first, while subordinated debt is only paid out if funds remain after paying off senior debt. To compensate an investor for the risk, subordinated debt…
What is a Commercial Bank? A commercial bank is a financial intermediary that serves businesses by providing essential liquidity functions within an economy via various products and services. The institution accepts and manages deposits to earn fee income and as a low-cost source of funds. Funds can generate interest income via credit creation and offering…
What is a Credit Default Swap (CDS)? A credit default swap (CDS) is a type of credit derivative that provides the buyer with protection against default and other risks. The buyer of a CDS makes periodic payments to the seller until the credit maturity date. In the agreement, the seller commits that, if the debt…
What is the Bandwagon Effect? The bandwagon effect is the tendency of people to take certain actions or arrive at a conclusion primarily because other people are doing so. The phenomenon is observed in various fields, such as economics, politics, and psychology. Financial markets are no different. The bandwagon effect works through a self-reinforcing mechanism….
What is a Backstop? A backstop is a financial arrangement that creates a secondary source of funds in case the primary source is not enough to meet current needs. It can also be thought of as an insurance policy that covers the inadequacy of a source of funds. The backstop can take various forms in…
What are Non-Cash Expenses? Non-cash expenses appear on an income statement because accounting principles require them to be recorded despite not actually being paid for with cash. The most common example of a non-cash expense is depreciation, where the cost of an asset is spread out over time even though the cash expense occurred all…
What is an Angel Investor? An angel investor is a person or company that provides capital for start-up businesses in exchange for ownership equity or convertible debt. They may provide a one-time investment or an ongoing capital injection to help the business move through the difficult early stages. Unlike banking institutions that invest in already…
