Valid Amount
The monetary amount displayed in the amount field on a credit profile.

Valid Date
The date embossed by the card issuer on the credit card. An establishment cannot accept a card for payment of goods or services prior to this date.

Validation
The process of testing the final scorecard before delivery. This is undertaken by the supplier and the process should be repeated by the user prior to the scorecard being implemented in a live environment.

Validation Sample
A small percentage of the development sample, (typically 20%), that is excluded from the scoring model development, so that it can be used to test the statistical validity of the final scorecard. Also known as Hold-out Sample.

Validity
The extent to which a measurement instrument or test accurately measures what it is supposed to measure.

Validity Assessment
The procedures necessary to demonstrate that questions are measuring the concepts that they were designed to measure.

Value-added Tax
Method of indirect taxation whereby a tax is levied at each stage of production on the value added at that specific stage.

Vanilla Issue
A security issue that has no unusual features.

Variable
A column in a database that contains the same kind of information for each record. For example, an Age field contains the age of each person in the database. A variable can be either dependent or independent. Also known as Attribute or Field.

Variable Interest Rate
A variable rate is pegged to a certain percentage above the prime rate or some other rate and adjusted either monthly or quarterly as that rate moves. (Variable interest rates are indicated by a V following the APR, example given, 10.90V.)

Variable Rate Loan
A loan with an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) that fluctuates according to certain economic indicators; lenders must disclose what indicators cause the rate to increase, what limits apply, and how the number or amount of payments would be affected.

Variable Rate Loan
A loan made at an interest rate that fluctuates based on a base interest rate such as the Prime Rate or LIBOR.

Variable Selection
Choosing among independent variables based on their relationship to the dependent (should be high) and to other independents in the selected group (should be low). We perform variable selection because methods like regression, neural networks, and clustering do not perform well with large numbers of independent variables.

Velocity
The number of times a unit of currency is spent, or turns over, in a specific period of time. Velocity affects the amount of economic activity generated by a given money supply.

Vendor
Any person or company that sells goods or services to somone else in the economic production chain. Parts manufacturers are vendors of parts to other manufacturers that assemble the parts into something sold to wholesalers or retailers. Retailers are vendors of products to consumers. (When you have a street fair, the people who set up booths and tables are often referred to as vendors.) In information technology as well as in other industries, the term is commonly applied to suppliers of goods and services to other companies.

Venture Capital
Funds used for investment in companies where there is a degree of financial risk in the initial stages. See Risk Capital.

Venture Capital
An investment in a start-up business that is perceived to have excellent growth prospects but does not have access to capital markets. This type of financing is usually sought by early-stage companies seeking to grow rapidly.

Verification
An effort to test the accuracy of the questionnaire response data. The concern is uniquely with data accuracy and deals with neither the reliability nor the validity of measures.

Video Conferencing
A conference conducted between participants at different locations, using computer networks or the Internet to transmit audio and video data.

Viewer
A program used by Internet client programs to show you files that contain items other than text.

Viral Marketing
Marketing plans that enlist customers to make online pitches to their friends and family.

Virtual Call Centre
A distributed call centre that acts as a single site for call handling and reporting purposes.

Virtual Reality
A 3-D visual computer simulation that responds to your inputs so realistically that you feel you're inside another world.

Virtual Terminal
The process of entering your credit card details and the amount on-line when purchasing a product.

Visa
Acronym for ‘Visa International Service Association’. One of the major bankcard schemes.

Visa Settlement Bank
A bank where Visa maintains its settlement accounts and performs funds transfer for settlement.

VisaNet
The systems and services through which Visa delivers authorisation, clearing and settlement services to members.

Vlog
A Vlog is a blog that provides a video journal on a subject rather than text entries.

Voice Response Unit (VRU)
An automated authorisation support system for touch-tone telephones.

Volatility
Measurement of the change in price of a financial instrument over a given time period.

Voters Roll (VR)
The electoral roll.

VR
Voters Roll or the electoral roll.

VRU
Abbreviation for Voice Response Unit. An automated authorisation support system for touch-tone telephones. See Historical Reports.