B2B
Internet term. A business or the process of selling to businesses.

B2B2C
Internet term. A business or the process of selling to both businesses and consumers.

B2C
Internet term. A business or the process of selling to consumers.

Baby Boomers
Nickname for people born between 1946 and 1964.

Back Bone
The Internet high-speed data highway that serves as a major access point and connects networks.

Back End
The activities necessary to complete a direct response transaction once an order has been received and/or the measurement of a buyer's performance after they have ordered the first item in a series of offerings.

Back-to-Back Letter of Credit
A letter of credit issued for the account of a buyer who is already holding a letter of credit in his favour.

Backdoor Listing
A scenario where a company is listed on the stock exchange after acquiring an already listed company and injecting new activities into it.

Backwards Compatible
A term that is used to describe a program`s ability to read a file created in an earlier version of it.

Bad Credit
A term used to describe a poor credit rating. Common practices that can damage a credit rating include making late payments, skipping payments, exceeding card limits or declaring bankruptcy. "Bad Credit" can result in being denied credit.

Bad Rate
The percentage of total accounts performing in an unsatisfactory manner, as determined by the good/bad definition used at the time the scorecard was developed.

Bads
Accounts that the credit grantor wishes they had not accepted. See Unsatisfactory Accounts.

Balance
The amount of funds outstanding on an account.

Balance At Risk (BAR)
The value that is calculated by multiplying the accounts balance by the probability that it will go bad.

Balance Sheet
The balance sheet is a ‘snapshot’ of the financial situation of a company at a specific point in time. The balance sheet allows for external evaluation of company performance and is usually a compliance requirement if the company is to operate legally.

Balance Surfer
A customer that continually moves their debt between issuers, to take advantage of introductory and special balance transfer offers.

Balance to Limit
The ratio of original loan amount or high credit limit to the outstanding balance.

Balance Transfer
An offer by credit grantors to transfer a customer’s debt from a competing organisation to their own, often at a more favourable interest rate.

Balance Transfer Fee
A fee charged to customers for transferring an outstanding balance from one card to another.

Balloon Note Financing
Allows a final loan payment substantially larger than regular, periodic payments. See Balloon Payment.

Balloon Payment
A final lump-sum payment that includes remaining unpaid principal. The extra payment extinguishes the debt. See Balloon Note Financing.

Bandwidth
1) The capacity of a network to carry data.
2) The measure of how much information can be entered via a medium such as a phone line. Bandwidth is measured in baud or bits per second (bps).

Bank
An establishment for (a) the custody, loan, exchange, or issue of money; (b) the extension of credit; and/or (c) facilitating the transmission of funds.

Bank for International Settlements
Abbreviated BIS. This is an organisation comprised mainly of central banking institutions, BIS concerns itself with international payments. See also Central Bank.

Bank Identification Number (BIN)
A six-digit number assigned by VISA and used to identify member banks or card processors for authorisation, clearing or settlement processing.

Bank Identifier Code
Also known as BIC.

Bank Routing Number
The first nine digits that appear across the bottom of a personal cheque. These numbers identify the financial institution.

Bank Run or Bank Panic
A series of unexpected cash withdrawals caused by a sudden decline in depositor confidence or fear of bank closure by the chartering agency, i.e. many depositors withdraw cash almost simultaneously.

Bankcard
A credit card, issued by a bank, credit union, and/or savings institutions, that is tied to a pre-approved line of credit, or a debit card, drawing funds from the holder’s current account or savings account.

Bankcard Association
A group of institutions formed for the purpose of sponsoring a bankcard program, using a common processing and administrative centre.

Bankruptcy
The legal process by which a consumer or business declares insolvency. See Chapter 11.

Bankwire Transfer
Transfer of funds to any bank within the US Federal Reserve System.

Banner Blindness
The tendency of an online user to ignore ad banners, even if they may contain information that the user is actively looking for.

BAR
Acronym for Balance At Risk. The value that is calculated by multiplying the accounts balance by the probability that it will go bad.

Bar Chart
A graph where data is displayed in the form of bars which are arranged either vertically or horizontally.

Base Line
A measurement against which another measurement can be compared. See also Bench Marking.

Base Staff
Also called Seated Agents. The minimum number of agents required to achieve service level and response time objectives for a given period of time. Seated agent calculations assume that agents will be in their seats for the entire period of time. Therefore, schedules need to add in extra people to accommodate breaks, absenteeism and other factors that will keep agents from the phones.

Basel Accord
Agreement concluded among country representatives in 1988 in Switzerland to develop standardised risk-based capital requirements for banks across countries.

Basic Custody
A financial term; refers to the safekeeping and administration of securities, shares and financial instruments on behalf of others. See Custodial.

Basic Rate
Manual rate from which discounts are taken or to which charges are added to reflect individual risk.

Basic Rate Interface (BRI)
One of two basic levels of ISDN service. A BRI line provides two bearer channels for voice and data and one channel for signalling (commonly expressed as 2B+D). Integrated Services Digital Network.

Basis Point
One one-hundredth of a percentage point. The difference between 7.04 percent and 7.05 percent is one basis point.

Batch
The accumulation of captured transactions waiting to be settled. Multiple batches may be settled throughout the day.

Batch Authorisation Transaction System (BATS)
A system designed to allow certain merchants for example, mail order merchants to batch process authorisations on their own time schedules.

Batch Header Ticket
The identifying form used by the electronic submission merchant to indicate a batch of sales or credit slips. This is usually a daily batch.

Batch Mode
Updating information as a group transaction, rather than individually. For example, if a company has received 10,000 replies to a direct mailing, it can update the master file with these replies in one batch, typically run overnight. This is the fastest and cheapest way to update records.

Batch Processing
A type of data processing and data communications transmission in which related transactions are grouped together and transmitted for processing, usually by the same computer and under the same application.

Batch Settlement
A batch settlement is when you close all your transactions for the day.

BATS
Abbreviation for Batch Authorisation Transaction System.

Baud
The number of electrical symbols per second which a modem is able to send by way of a phone line.

Bayes’ Theorem
Thomas Bayes was an 18th century English clergyman with an express interest in mathematics. The theory is essentially a technique to estimate the conditional probability of a cause, given that a particular event has occurred.

Bayesian Belief Networks
A system that represents cause and effect relationships among variables, along with probabilities that each cause variable will influence each effect variable. It is an alternative to fuzzy expert systems for combining expert knowledge with inferences derived from historical data. Also known as Bayesian Networks and Causal Networks.

Bayesian Networks
A system that represents cause and effect relationships among variables, along with probabilities that each cause variable will influence each effect variable. It is an alternative to fuzzy expert systems for combining expert knowledge with inferences derived from historical data. Also known as Bayesian Belief Networks and Causal Networks.

BBS
A Bulletin Board System is an electronic message system that you dial up directly on your computer to read and post messages or pull off files.

BCP
Acronym for Business Continuity Planning. The process of planning the recovery and the resumption of critical operations in the event of a physical or electronic disruption of the financial services industry.

Bear
An investor who sells shares in the hopes of buying them back at a lower price.

Bear Market
Market in which prices are generally declining and the underlying sentiment reinforces the general decline.

Behaviour Scoring
A scoring system used to estimate the probability that an existing account will go bad. It is developed using account behaviour data, such as payment and purchase activity and is typically calculated on a monthly basis. Also known as Performance Scoring. See Adaptive Control System.

Bell Curve
The colloquial term for a normal distribution, which is the function that represents the distribution of many random variables as a symmetrical bell-shaped graph. Also known as Normal Distribution or Gaussian Distribution.

Benchmark
A term referred to as a standardised task to test the capabilities of devices against each other. In quality terms, benchmarking involves comparing products, services and processes with those of other organisations, to identify new ideas and improvement opportunities.

Benchmarking
The process of comparing measurements or indexes relative to on another, allowing the identification of ‘best practice’ methods and measurements.

Benchmarking Consortium
An industry group that seeks to set benchmarks of best practice or performance for a given industry or sector.

Beneficiary
The person receiving the benefits from the terms of a trust, a pension or provident fund, other deferred income plan, or an insurance policy.

Best in Class
A benchmarking term to identify organisations that outperform all others in a specified category.

Best Linear Unbiased Estimator (BLUE)
This is an estimator that has expected parameters equal to the underlying model parameters and as such has minimum variance.

Best of Breed
In the technology world, this refers to the best product of its type and companies purchase software through a variety of vendors to acquire the "best of breed" for each application.

Best Practices
A business management term to describe the optimal tactics and strategies used in successful companies.

Best-in-Breed
An industry jargon used to describe "the best" of something within its niche, such as a new company or a new application.

Beta Co-efficient
The score generated out of a regression model for each attribute.

Bias
An unexpected or hidden influence in a dataset, which will cause atypical results when the data is analysed.

BIC Code
Acronym for Bank Identifier Code. BIC is a unique code used to identify a market participant.

Bilateral Netting
An agreement between two parties in which they exchange only the difference in their obligations to each other.

Bill Consolidator
A bill service provider (BSP) who consolidates bills from other BSPs (or other billers) and delivers them for presentment to the customer service provider. Also referred to as a Consolidator.

Bill of Exchange
Written order by which one party instructs another party to pay a specified sum to a third party.

Bill Payment Provider (BPP)
An agent, usually a financial institution, of the biller that originates and accepts payments on behalf of the biller.

Bill Payment Service Provider (BPSP)
A financial institution or non-financial entity acting as an intermediary between the biller and consumer for the exchange of electronic bill payment information.

Bill Service Provider (BSP)
An agent of the biller that provides an electronic bill presentment and payment service for the biller.

Billback
A method of recovering or reducing interchange fees for transactions which clear differently to as originally planned. The processing company passes through the charges to the merchant.

Biller
A company or an organisation that sends a bill or statement to a consumer. This is usually a request for payment for a product or service.

Billing Cycle
The number of days between the last statement date and the current statement date.

Billing Statement
The monthly statement sent by a credit card issuer to a customer, giving a summary of the activity on an account, including balance, purchases, payments, credits and finance charges.

BIN
Acronym for Bank Identification Number. A six-digit number assigned by VISA and used to identify member banks or card processors for authorisation, clearing or settlement processing. Also see Chargeback Reference Number.

Binary Outcome
The situation where the dependent variable has only two values, such as good or bad, response or no response. See Dichotomous Outcome.

Biometric
Technology that utilises behavioural or physiological characteristics to determine or verify identity e.g. finger-scan.

Biometric System
The integrated biometric hardware and software used to conduct biometric identification or verification.

Biometrics
Identification and authentication techniques based on the physical characteristics of a person such as fingerprints, hand geometry, retina scan or voice print.

BIS
Abbreviation for Bank for International Settlements. This is an organisation comprised mainly of central banking institutions, BIS concerns itself with international payments. See also Central Bank.

BISTRO
Acronym for Broad Index Secured Trust Offering. This is a vehicle for transferring a significant level of diverse credit risk into a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

Bit
If a byte is like an atom in computer language, a bit is like an electron. A bit is either on or off. It is either a 1 or a 0. Eight bits make up one byte. See Byte.

Bivariate Analysis
Any form of analysis in which only two variables are considered.

Blank Cheque
A cheque that does not have a value amount written on it.

Blanket
A secured loan that gives the lender a lien against all the borrower's inventories.

Blanket Mortgage
A mortgage that covers at least two pieces of real estate as collateral for the same mortgage.

Block
The smallest reported unit in the 1990 U.S. Census. There are c. 14 households in a block.

Block Code
A code used by credit grantors to identify specific accounts and typically block them from taking additional credit.

Block Group
The smallest reported unit in the 1980 U. S. Census. There are about 340 households in a Block Group.

Blockage
Callers blocked from entering a queue.

Blocking Accounts
The ability to block any further activity on an account due to a change in circumstance, for example account delinquency or fraud.

Blog
Blogs are sites that capture particular views, ideas or opinions over time. Each blog tells a story, be it a person, an organisation, an event or any other subject.

Blogger
A person that communicates on blogs e.g. musicblogger, an audioblogger, an MP3blogger etc. Also see Blogosphere.

Blogosphere
The shared intellectual space inhabited by people that blog. Also see Blog and Blogger.

BLUE
Acronym for Best Linear Unbiased Estimator. This is an estimator that has expected parameters equal to the underlying model parameters and as such has minimum variance.

Blue Chip
A company known nationally for the quality and wide acceptance of its products or services, and for its ability to make money and pay dividends.

Bluetooth
Shortwave radio-based technology that uses a new type of chip to enable wireless transfer of signals at short distances between telephones, computers and other equipment.

Bluetooth
A technology that allows an array of devices to communicate over short-distance wireless connections. This technology applies to PCs on a local area network as well as cell phones, personal digital assistants and even wristwatches.

Boilerplate
Standard terms and conditions, e.g. in a debt contract.

Bond
An interest-bearing security legally obligating the issuing company or government to repay the principal loan amount to the bond investor at a specified future date.

Bond Costs
These are the conveyancer’s fees, stamp duty and VAT. They are payable by the buyer to the attorney attending to the registration of the bond on behalf of the bank.

Bond Market
Primary or secondary market for government municipal or corporate debt securities.

Bond Rating
An evaluation of the possible risk of credit losses due to a bond issuer default, based largely on the bond issuer’s financial condition and profit potential.

Bond Registration Fee
A fee charged to register the home loan in the buyer’s name.

Bonus Share
Payment of a corporate dividend in the form of stocks rather than cash.

Boosting
Boosting is a general class of technologies for improving the performance of an existing prediction technology. Boosting works by sequentially applying a classification algorithm to re-weighted versions of the training sample. Boosting works particularly well in practice when you apply it to an existing technology that is simple or weak.

Bootstrap Sample
Bootstrap samples are used in many modelling technologies to obtain reliable prediction estimates, usually by averaging the estimates across the samples, especially in cases where only small samples are available.

Borrower
A person who receives funds in the form of a loan with the obligation to repay the loan in full.

Borrower
The person who applies for a loan.

Bounce Back
The practice of sending a second identical or similar catalogue back to someone who has just ordered an item from the original catalogue.

Bounce E-mail
Bounce e-mail or bounce mail is electronic mail that is returned to the sender because it cannot be delivered for some reason. There are two kinds of Bounce e-mail: Hard Bounce and Soft Bounce.

Bozos
Customers or accounts that are below an organisation’s break-even point and so are unprofitable.

BPP
Abbreviation for Bill Payment Provider. An agent (usually a financial institution) of the biller that originates and accepts payments on behalf of the biller.

BPSP
Abbreviation for Bill Payment Service Provider. A financial institution or non-financial entity acting as an intermediary between the biller and consumer for the exchange of electronic bill payment information.

Brain Drain
The loss of human resources especially employees that are very knowledgeable.

Branch of the Future
A term to describe a one-stop Banking facility where front line agents can handle any type of customer query. This would eliminate the need for customers to move between several queues in resolving their different queries.

Brand Managers
Most packaged goods companies organise themselves by brand. The brand manager is responsible for advertising, marketing and sales of the product.

Brand Police
A person whose primary task is to ensure the integrity of their company`s brand.

Break-even Odds
The ratio of the number of Good accounts needed to pay for the loss generated by one Bad account. This assumes that the average profit from a Good account and the average loss from a Bad account are known.

BRI
Abbreviation for Basic Rate Interface. A BRI line provides two bearer channels for voice and data and one channel for signalling (commonly expressed as 2B+D). See Primary Rate Interface (PRI) and Integrated Services Digital Network.

Bridging Loan
Short-term loan to provide temporary financing until more permanent financing is found.

Broad Index Secured Trust Offering
Also known as BISTRO. This is a vehicle for transferring a significant level of diverse credit risk into a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).

Broadband
A transmission medium that is capable of supporting a wide range of frequencies from audio to video. Broadband is often used to send different types of signals simultaneously.

Broadband Communications
Broadband communications refers to a fast data-rate digital system or a wide bandwidth analogue system.

Broadband Internet
Broadband Internet access refers to the three different kinds of high-speed Internet connections: cable, DSL and satellite.

Broadband Network
A technique that is used to transmit a large amount of information, including voice, data and video, over long distances.

Broadband Transmission
A type of transmission in which a single medium can carry several channels at a time.

Broker
In financial terms, this is a trading party who operates on the stock market either for itself or on behalf of brokerage clients.

Brokerage Commission
The commission paid by a list owner to a broker for handling the rental of a marketing list.

Browser
Short for Web Browser, the tool that allows users to surf the Web. The popular Web browsers include Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Browser
A program used to navigate the World Wide Web. Popular web browsers include Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

BS
Acronym for Behaviour Score. A scoring system used to estimate the probability that an existing account will go bad. It is developed using account behaviour data, such as payment and purchase activity and is typically calculated on a monthly basis. Also known as Performance Scoring.

BSP
Abbreviation for Bill Service Provider. An agent of the biller that provides an electronic bill presentment and payment service for the biller.

Budget Card
Budget cards are similar to credit cards, except for the credit limit. A set payment monthly amount payable by debit order is agreed is agreed. The credit limit is a multiple of the pre-set amount agreed.

Bugs
Errors that occur in software. These are caused by the inability of programmers to predict all possible ways that the code in their programs will be used to process data.

Building Loan
A Loan granted to a buyer who buys a vacant plot of land on which he intends to build.

Bull
An investor buying shares in the hopes of making a profit from future rising prices.

Bull Market
Rising market, or a market in which further price increases are expected, due to strong demand.

Bulldog Bond
Foreign bond issue made in London.

Bullet Payment
A single final payment.

Bulletin Board System (BBS)
An electronic message system that you dial up directly on your computer to read and post messages or pull off files.

Bundle
All written documentation relevant to the court case.

Bureau Enquiry
A history of an enquiry made upon your name, which is kept on your credit profile for a period of time, together with the company’s name that made the enquiry i.e. history of whom you sought credit from.

Bureaux
More than one Bureau is known as Bureaux (plural). Credit reference agencies are also known as credit bureaux or simply ‘the bureaux’.

Business Card
A bankcard issued to companies for use by company employees. The liability for abuse of the card typically rests with the company, not with the employee.

Business Continuity Planning
Also known as BCP. The process of planning the recovery and the resumption of critical operations in the event of a physical or electronic disruption of the financial services industry.

Business Credit
Extensions of credit primarily for business or commercial purposes.

Business Cycle
The ups and downs of the economy that follow a cyclical pattern over the course of time.

Business Data Layer
Any derived data layer that is the result of an aggregation of framework data layers or specific data layers that is used to meet specific business needs.

Business Day
Also known as market day. Financial terms referring to the days that Stock Exchanges are open for business. This excludes Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence includes any technology that lets users independently access and analyse corporate data, and that delivers valuable information for timely, informed decision-making.

Business Rule
A statement expressing a policy or condition that governs business actions and establishes data integrity guidelines. A business rule statement must always be true.

Business-to-Business
Also known as B2B. Applications intended to improve relationships within firms and between two or more companies. It was based on the use of private networks and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).

Business-to-Consumer
Also known as B2C. Includes electronic shopping, information searching and interactive games delivered over the Internet. Popular items purchased are airline tickets, books, computers, videotapes, and music CDs.

Busted Convertible
Convertibles that trade like fixed-income investments because the market price of the common stock they convert to has fallen so low as to render the conversion feature valueless.

Buyer`s Market
Market conditions that favour buyers. With more sellers than buyers in the market, sellers may be forced to make substantial price concessions.

Buyout
Purchase of at least a controlling percentage of a company's stock to take over its assets and operations.

Buzzword
A trendy term that is used in business to impress someone rather than to explain something.

Byte
A unit of computer memory. One letter or number is a byte. A byte is usually composed of eight bits.