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Appendix B — Glossary of Selected Terms

Appendix B — Glossary of Selected Terms

Appendix B — Glossary of Selected Terms

The following are definitions of selected terms from the ASC master glossary:
ASC Master Glossary
Active Market
A market in which transactions for the asset or liability take place with sufficient frequency and volume to provide pricing information on an ongoing basis.
Affiliate
A party that, directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with an entity. See Control.
Agent
A party that acts for and on behalf of another party. For example, a third-party intermediary is an agent of the transferor if it acts on behalf of the transferor.
Antidilution
An increase in earnings per share amounts or a decrease in loss per share amounts.
Auction Rate Notes
Auction rate notes are notes that generally have long-term nominal maturities and interest rates that reset periodically through a Dutch auction process, typically every 7, 28, or 35 days. At an auction, existing holders of auction rate notes and potential buyers enter a competitive bidding process through a broker-dealer, specifying the number of shares (units) to purchase with the lowest interest rate they are willing to accept. Generally, the lowest bid rate at which all shares can be sold at the notes’ par value establishes the interest rate (also known as the clearing rate) to be applied until the next auction.
Baby Bonds
See Payment-in-Kind Bonds.
Basic Earnings per Share
The amount of earnings for the period available to each share of common stock outstanding during the reporting period.
Benchmark Interest Rate
A widely recognized and quoted rate in an active financial market that is broadly indicative of the overall level of interest rates attributable to high-credit-quality obligors in that market. It is a rate that is widely used in a given financial market as an underlying basis for determining the interest rates of individual financial instruments and commonly referenced in interest-rate-related transactions.
In theory, the benchmark interest rate should be a risk-free rate (that is, has no risk of default). In some markets, government borrowing rates may serve as a benchmark. In other markets, the benchmark interest rate may be an interbank offered rate.
Beneficial Interests
Rights to receive all or portions of specified cash inflows received by a trust or other entity, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
  1. Senior and subordinated shares of interest, principal, or other cash inflows to be passed-through or paid-through
  2. Premiums due to guarantors
  3. Commercial paper obligations
  4. Residual interests, whether in the form of debt or equity.
Bunny Bonds
See Payment-in-Kind Bonds.
Callable Obligation
An obligation is callable at a given date if the creditor has the right at that date to demand, or to give notice of its intention to demand, repayment of the obligation owed to it by the debtor.
Capitalization Rate
Rate used to determine amount of interest to be capitalized in an accounting period.
Capitalize
Capitalize is used to indicate that the cost would be recorded as the cost of an asset. That procedure is often referred to as deferring a cost, and the resulting asset is sometimes described as a deferred cost.
Carrying Amount
For a receivable, the face amount increased or decreased by applicable accrued interest and applicable unamortized premium, discount, finance charges, or issue costs and also an allowance for uncollectible amounts and other valuation accounts.
For a payable, the face amount increased or decreased by applicable accrued interest and applicable unamortized premium, discount, finance charges, or issue costs.
Cash
Consistent with common usage, cash includes not only currency on hand but demand deposits with banks or other financial institutions. Cash also includes other kinds of accounts that have the general characteristics of demand deposits in that the customer may deposit additional funds at any time and also effectively may withdraw funds at any time without prior notice or penalty. All charges and credits to those accounts are cash receipts or payments to both the entity owning the account and the bank holding it. For example, a bank’s granting of a loan by crediting the proceeds to a customer’s demand deposit account is a cash payment by the bank and a cash receipt of the customer when the entry is made.
Cash Equivalents
Cash equivalents are short-term, highly liquid investments that have both of the following characteristics:
  1. Readily convertible to known amounts of cash
  2. So near their maturity that they present insignificant risk of changes in value because of changes in interest rates.
Generally, only investments with original maturities of three months or less qualify under that definition. Original maturity means original maturity to the entity holding the investment. For example, both a three-month U.S. Treasury bill and a three-year U.S. Treasury note purchased three months from maturity qualify as cash equivalents. However, a Treasury note purchased three years ago does not become a cash equivalent when its remaining maturity is three months. Examples of items commonly considered to be cash equivalents are Treasury bills, commercial paper, money market funds, and federal funds sold (for an entity with banking operations).
Cash Flow Hedge
A hedge of the exposure to variability in the cash flows of a recognized asset or liability, or of a forecasted transaction, that is attributable to a particular risk.
Cashless Exercise
See Net Share Settlement.
Collateral
Personal or real property in which a security interest has been given.
Collateralized Financing Entity
A variable interest entity that holds financial assets, issues beneficial interests in those financial assets, and has no more than nominal equity. The beneficial interests have contractual recourse only to the related assets of the collateralized financing entity and are classified as financial liabilities. A collateralized financing entity may hold nonfinancial assets temporarily as a result of default by the debtor on the underlying debt instruments held as assets by the collateralized financing entity or in an effort to restructure the debt instruments held as assets by the collateralized financing entity. A collateralized financing entity also may hold other financial assets and financial liabilities that are incidental to the operations of the collateralized financing entity and have carrying values that approximate fair value (for example, cash, broker receivables, or broker payables).
Common Stock
A stock that is subordinate to all other stock of the issuer. Also called common shares.
Conduit Debt Securities
Certain limited-obligation revenue bonds, certificates of participation, or similar debt instruments issued by a state or local governmental entity for the express purpose of providing financing for a specific third party (the conduit bond obligor) that is not a part of the state or local government’s financial reporting entity. Although conduit debt securities bear the name of the governmental entity that issues them, the governmental entity often has no obligation for such debt beyond the resources provided by a lease or loan agreement with the third party on whose behalf the securities are issued. Further, the conduit bond obligor is responsible for any future financial reporting requirements.
Consolidated Financial Statements
The financial statements of a consolidated group of entities that include a parent and all its subsidiaries presented as those of a single economic entity.
Consolidated Group
A parent and all its subsidiaries.
Contingency
An existing condition, situation, or set of circumstances involving uncertainty as to possible gain (gain contingency) or loss (loss contingency) to an entity that will ultimately be resolved when one or more future events occur or fail to occur.
Contingently Convertible Instruments
Contingently convertible instruments are instruments that have embedded conversion features that are contingently convertible or exercisable based on either of the following:
  1. A market price trigger
  2. Multiple contingencies if one of the contingencies is a market price trigger and the instrument can be converted or share settled based on meeting the specified market condition.
A market price trigger is a market condition that is based at least in part on the issuer’s own share price. Examples of contingently convertible instruments include contingently convertible debt, contingently convertible preferred stock, and the instrument described by paragraph 260-10-45-43, all with embedded market price triggers.
Contract
An agreement between two or more parties that creates enforceable rights and obligations.
Contract Asset
An entity’s right to consideration in exchange for goods or services that the entity has transferred to a customer when that right is conditioned on something other than the passage of time (for example, the entity’s future performance).
Contract Liability
An entity’s obligation to transfer goods or services to a customer for which the entity has received consideration (or the amount is due) from the customer.
Control
The possession, direct or indirect, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of an entity through ownership, by contract, or otherwise.
Conversion Rate
The ratio of the number of common shares issuable upon conversion to a unit of a convertible security. For example, $100 face value of debt convertible into 5 shares of common stock would have a conversion ratio of 5:1. Also called conversion ratio.
Convertible Security
A security that is convertible into another security based on a conversion rate. For example, convertible preferred stock that is convertible into common stock on a two-for-one basis (two shares of common for each share of preferred).
Credit Derivative
A derivative instrument that has both of the following characteristics:
  1. One or more of its underlyings are related to any of the following:
    1. The credit risk of a specified entity (or a group of entities)
    2. An index based on the credit risk of a group of entities.
  2. It exposes the seller to potential loss from credit-risk-related events specified in the contract.
Examples of credit derivatives include, but are not limited to, credit default swaps, credit spread options, and credit index products.
Credit Risk
For purposes of a hedged item in a fair value hedge, credit risk is the risk of changes in the hedged item’s fair value attributable to both of the following:
  1. Changes in the obligor’s creditworthiness
  2. Changes in the spread over the benchmark interest rate with respect to the hedged item’s credit sector at inception of the hedge.
For purposes of a hedged transaction in a cash flow hedge, credit risk is the risk of changes in the hedged transaction’s cash flows attributable to all of the following:
  1. Default
  2. Changes in the obligor’s creditworthiness
  3. Changes in the spread over the contractually specified interest rate or the benchmark interest rate with respect to the related financial asset’s or liability’s credit sector at inception of the hedge.
Currency Risk
The risk that the fair value or future cash flows of a financial instrument will fluctuate because of changes in foreign exchange rates.
Current Assets
Current assets is used to designate cash and other assets or resources commonly identified as those that are reasonably expected to be realized in cash or sold or consumed during the normal operating cycle of the business. See paragraphs 210-10-45-1 through 45-4.
Current Liabilities
Current liabilities is used principally to designate obligations whose liquidation is reasonably expected to require the use of existing resources properly classifiable as current assets, or the creation of other current liabilities. See paragraphs 210-10-45-5 through 45-12.
Customer
A party that has contracted with an entity to obtain goods or services that are an output of the entity’s ordinary activities in exchange for consideration.
Derecognize
Remove previously recognized assets or liabilities from the statement of financial position.
Derivative Instrument
Paragraphs 815-10-15-83 through 15-139 define the term derivative instrument.
Diluted Earnings per Share
The amount of earnings for the period available to each share of common stock outstanding during the reporting period and to each share that would have been outstanding assuming the issuance of common shares for all dilutive potential common shares outstanding during the reporting period.
Dilution
A reduction in EPS resulting from the assumption that convertible securities were converted, that options or warrants were exercised, or that other shares were issued upon the satisfaction of certain conditions.
Discount
The difference between the net proceeds, after expense, received upon issuance of debt and the amount repayable at its maturity. See Premium.
Discount Rate Adjustment Technique
A present value technique that uses a risk-adjusted discount rate and contractual, promised, or most likely cash flows.
Down Round Feature
A feature in a financial instrument that reduces the strike price of an issued financial instrument if the issuer sells shares of its stock for an amount less than the currently stated strike price of the issued financial instrument or issues an equity-linked financial instrument with a strike price below the currently stated strike price of the issued financial instrument.
A down round feature may reduce the strike price of a financial instrument to the current issuance price, or the reduction may be limited by a floor or on the basis of a formula that results in a price that is at a discount to the original exercise price but above the new issuance price of the shares, or may reduce the strike price to below the current issuance price. A standard antidilution provision is not considered a down round feature.
Earnings per Share
The amount of earnings attributable to each share of common stock. For convenience, the term is used to refer to either earnings or loss per share.
Effective Notional Amount
The effective notional amount is the stated notional amount adjusted for any leverage factor.
Embedded Credit Derivative
An embedded derivative that is also a credit derivative.
Embedded Derivative
Implicit or explicit terms that affect some or all of the cash flows or the value of other exchanges required by a contract in a manner similar to a derivative instrument.
Entry Price
The price paid to acquire an asset or received to assume a liability in an exchange transaction.
Equity Kicker
See Expected Residual Profit.
Equity Restructuring
A nonreciprocal transaction between an entity and its shareholders that causes the per-share fair value of the shares underlying an option or similar award to change, such as a stock dividend, stock split, spinoff, rights offering, or recapitalization through a large, nonrecurring cash dividend.
Equity Shares
Equity shares refers only to shares that are accounted for as equity.
Error in Previously Issued Financial Statements
An error in recognition, measurement, presentation, or disclosure in financial statements resulting from mathematical mistakes, mistakes in the application of generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), or oversight or misuse of facts that existed at the time the financial statements were prepared. A change from an accounting principle that is not generally accepted to one that is generally accepted is a correction of an error.
Exchange Market
A market in which closing prices are both readily available and generally representative of fair value. An example of such a market is the New York Stock Exchange.
Exchange Rate
The ratio between a unit of one currency and the amount of another currency for which that unit can be exchanged at a particular time.
Exercise Contingency
A provision that entitles the entity (or the counterparty) to exercise an equity-linked financial instrument (or embedded feature) based on changes in an underlying, including the occurrence (or nonoccurrence) of a specified event. Provisions that accelerate the timing of the entity’s (or the counterparty’s) ability to exercise an instrument and provisions that extend the length of time that an instrument is exercisable are examples of exercise contingencies.
Exit Price
The price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability.
Expected Cash Flow
The probability-weighted average (that is, mean of the distribution) of possible future cash flows.
Expected Residual Profit
The amount of profit, whether called interest or another name, such as equity kicker, above a reasonable amount of interest and fees expected to be earned by a lender.
Face Amount
See Notional Amount.
Fair Value
The price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.
Fair Value Hedge
A hedge of the exposure to changes in the fair value of a recognized asset or liability, or of an unrecognized firm commitment, that are attributable to a particular risk.
Fed Funds Effective Rate Overnight Index Swap Rate
The fixed rate on a U.S. dollar, constant-notional interest rate swap that has its variable-rate leg referenced to the Fed Funds Effective Rate (an overnight rate) with no additional spread over the Fed Funds effective rate on that variable-rate leg. That fixed rate is the derived rate that would result in the swap having a zero fair value at inception because the present value of fixed cash flows, based on that rate, equates to the present value of the variable cash flows.
Financial Asset
Cash, evidence of an ownership interest in an entity, or a contract that conveys to one entity a right to do either of the following:
  1. Receive cash or another financial instrument from a second entity
  2. Exchange other financial instruments on potentially favorable terms with the second entity.
Financial Instrument
Cash, evidence of an ownership interest in an entity, or a contract that both:
  1. Imposes on one entity a contractual obligation either:
    1. To deliver cash or another financial instrument to a second entity
    2. To exchange other financial instruments on potentially unfavorable terms with the second entity.
  2. Conveys to that second entity a contractual right either:
    1. To receive cash or another financial instrument from the first entity
    2. To exchange other financial instruments on potentially favorable terms with the first entity.
The use of the term financial instrument in this definition is recursive (because the term financial instrument is included in it), though it is not circular. The definition requires a chain of contractual obligations that ends with the delivery of cash or an ownership interest in an entity. Any number of obligations to deliver financial instruments can be links in a chain that qualifies a particular contract as a financial instrument.
Contractual rights and contractual obligations encompass both those that are conditioned on the occurrence of a specified event and those that are not. All contractual rights (contractual obligations) that are financial instruments meet the definition of asset (liability) set forth in FASB Concepts Statement No. 6, Elements of Financial Statements, although some may not be recognized as assets (liabilities) in financial statements — that is, they may be off-balance-sheet — because they fail to meet some other criterion for recognition.
For some financial instruments, the right is held by or the obligation is due from (or the obligation is owed to or by) a group of entities rather than a single entity.
Financial Liability
A contract that imposes on one entity an obligation to do either of the following:
  1. Deliver cash or another financial instrument to a second entity
  2. Exchange other financial instruments on potentially unfavorable terms with the second entity.
Financial Statements Are Available to Be Issued
Financial statements are considered available to be issued when they are complete in a form and format that complies with GAAP and all approvals necessary for issuance have been obtained, for example, from management, the board of directors, and/or significant shareholders. The process involved in creating and distributing the financial statements will vary depending on an entity’s management and corporate governance structure as well as statutory and regulatory requirements.
Financial Statements Are Issued
Financial statements are considered issued when they are widely distributed to shareholders and other financial statement users for general use and reliance in a form and format that complies with GAAP. (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] registrants also are required to consider the guidance in paragraph 855-10-S99-2.)
Financing Activities
Financing activities include obtaining resources from owners and providing them with a return on, and a return of, their investment; receiving restricted resources that by donor stipulation must be used for long-term purposes; borrowing money and repaying amounts borrowed, or otherwise settling the obligation; and obtaining and paying for other resources obtained from creditors on long-term credit.
Firm Commitment
An agreement with an unrelated party, binding on both parties and usually legally enforceable, with the following characteristics:
  1. The agreement specifies all significant terms, including the quantity to be exchanged, the fixed price, and the timing of the transaction. The fixed price may be expressed as a specified amount of an entity’s functional currency or of a foreign currency. It may also be expressed as a specified interest rate or specified effective yield. The binding provisions of an agreement are regarded to include those legal rights and obligations codified in the laws to which such an agreement is subject. A price that varies with the market price of the item that is the subject of the firm commitment cannot qualify as a fixed price. For example, a price that is specified in terms of ounces of gold would not be a fixed price if the market price of the item to be purchased or sold under the firm commitment varied with the price of gold.
  2. The agreement includes a disincentive for nonperformance that is sufficiently large to make performance probable. In the legal jurisdiction that governs the agreement, the existence of statutory rights to pursue remedies for default equivalent to the damages suffered by the nondefaulting party, in and of itself, represents a sufficiently large disincentive for nonperformance to make performance probable for purposes of applying the definition of a firm commitment.
Forecasted Transaction
A transaction that is expected to occur for which there is no firm commitment. Because no transaction or event has yet occurred and the transaction or event when it occurs will be at the prevailing market price, a forecasted transaction does not give an entity any present rights to future benefits or a present obligation for future sacrifices.
Foreign Currency
A currency other than the functional currency of the entity being referred to (for example, the dollar could be a foreign currency for a foreign entity). Composites of currencies, such as the Special Drawing Rights, used to set prices or denominate amounts of loans, and so forth, have the characteristics of foreign currency.
Foreign Currency Transactions
Transactions whose terms are denominated in a currency other than the entity’s functional currency. Foreign currency transactions arise when a reporting entity does any of the following:
  1. Buys or sells on credit goods or services whose prices are denominated in foreign currency
  2. Borrows or lends funds and the amounts payable or receivable are denominated in foreign currency
  3. Is a party to an unperformed forward exchange contract
  4. For other reasons, acquires or disposes of assets, or incurs or settles liabilities denominated in foreign currency.
Foreign Currency Translation
The process of expressing in the reporting currency of the reporting entity those amounts that are denominated or measured in a different currency.
Foreign Entity
An operation (for example, subsidiary, division, branch, joint venture, and so forth) whose financial statements are both:
  1. Prepared in a currency other than the reporting currency of the reporting entity
  2. Combined or consolidated with or accounted for on the equity basis in the financial statements of the reporting entity.
Foreign Exchange Risk
The risk of changes in a hedged item’s fair value or functional-currency-equivalent cash flows attributable to changes in the related foreign currency exchange rates.
Freestanding Contract
A freestanding contract is entered into either:
  1. Separate and apart from any of the entity’s other financial instruments or equity transactions
  2. In conjunction with some other transaction and is legally detachable and separately exercisable.
Freestanding Financial Instrument
A financial instrument that meets either of the following conditions:
  1. It is entered into separately and apart from any of the entity’s other financial instruments or equity transactions.
  2. It is entered into in conjunction with some other transaction and is legally detachable and separately exercisable.
Functional Currency
An entity’s functional currency is the currency of the primary economic environment in which the entity operates; normally, that is the currency of the environment in which an entity primarily generates and expends cash. (See paragraphs 830-10-45-2 through 830-10-45-6 and 830-10-55-3 through 830-10-55-7.)
Gain Contingency
An existing condition, situation, or set of circumstances involving uncertainty as to possible gain to an entity that will ultimately be resolved when one or more future events occur or fail to occur.
High-Yield Debt Securities
Corporate and municipal debt securities having a lower-than-investment-grade credit rating (BB+ or lower by Standard & Poor’s, or Ba or lower by Moody’s). Because high-yield debt securities typically are used when lower-cost capital is not available, they have interest rates several percentage points higher than investment-grade debt and often have shorter maturities. These high-yielding corporate and municipal debt obligations are frequently referred to as junk bonds.
Hybrid Instrument
A contract that embodies both an embedded derivative and a host contract.
If-Converted Method
A method of computing EPS data that assumes conversion of convertible securities at the beginning of the reporting period (or at time of issuance, if later).
Immediate Family
Family members who might control or influence a principal owner or a member of management, or who might be controlled or influenced by a principal owner or a member of management, because of the family relationship.
Imputed Interest Rate
The interest rate that results from a process of approximation (or imputation) required when the present value of a note must be estimated because an established exchange price is not determinable and the note has no ready market.
Income Approach
Valuation approaches that convert future amounts (for example, cash flows or income and expenses) to a single current (that is, discounted) amount. The fair value measurement is determined on the basis of the value indicated by current market expectations about those future amounts.
Inputs
The assumptions that market participants would use when pricing the asset or liability, including assumptions about risk, such as the following:
  1. The risk inherent in a particular valuation technique used to measure fair value (such as a pricing model)
  2. The risk inherent in the inputs to the valuation technique.
Inputs may be observable or unobservable.
In-Substance Defeasance
Placement by the debtor of amounts equal to the principal, interest, and prepayment penalties related to a debt instrument in an irrevocable trust established for the benefit of the creditor.
Interest Cost
Interest cost includes interest recognized on obligations having explicit interest rates, interest imputed on certain types of payables in accordance with Subtopic 835-30, and interest related to a finance lease determined in accordance with Topic 842. With respect to obligations having explicit interest rates, interest cost includes amounts resulting from periodic amortization of discount or premium and issue costs on debt.
Interest Method
The method used to arrive at a periodic interest cost (including amortization) that will represent a level effective rate on the sum of the face amount of the debt and (plus or minus) the unamortized premium or discount and expense at the beginning of each period.
Interest Rate Risk
For recognized variable-rate financial instruments and forecasted issuances or purchases of variable-rate financial instruments, interest rate risk is the risk of changes in the hedged item’s cash flows attributable to changes in the contractually specified interest rate in the agreement.
For recognized fixed-rate financial instruments, interest rate risk is the risk of changes in the hedged item’s fair value attributable to changes in the designated benchmark interest rate. For forecasted issuances or purchases of fixed-rate financial instruments, interest rate risk is the risk of changes in the hedged item’s cash flows attributable to changes in the designated benchmark interest rate.
Intrinsic Value
The amount by which the fair value of the underlying stock exceeds the exercise price of an option. For example, an option with an exercise price of $20 on a stock whose current market price is $25 has an intrinsic value of $5. (A nonvested share may be described as an option on that share with an exercise price of zero. Thus, the fair value of a share is the same as the intrinsic value of such an option on that share.)
Issued, Issuance, or Issuing of an Equity Instrument
An equity instrument is issued when the issuing entity receives the agreed-upon consideration, which may be cash, an enforceable right to receive cash, or another financial instrument, goods, or services. An entity may conditionally transfer an equity instrument to another party under an arrangement that permits that party to choose at a later date or for a specified time whether to deliver the consideration or to forfeit the right to the conditionally transferred instrument with no further obligation. In that situation, the equity instrument is not issued until the issuing entity has received the consideration. The grant of stock options or other equity instruments subject to vesting conditions is not considered to be issuance.
Issuer
The entity that issued a financial instrument or may be required under the terms of a financial instrument to issue its equity shares.
Issuer’s Equity Shares
The equity shares of any entity whose financial statements are included in the consolidated financial statements.
Junk Bonds
See High-Yield Debt Securities.
Lease
A contract, or part of a contract, that conveys the right to control the use of identified property, plant, or equipment (an identified asset) for a period of time in exchange for consideration.
Lease Modification
A change to the terms and conditions of a contract that results in a change in the scope of or the consideration for a lease (for example, a change to the terms and conditions of the contract that adds or terminates the right to use one or more underlying assets or extends or shortens the contractual lease term).
Legal Entity
Any legal structure used to conduct activities or to hold assets. Some examples of such structures are corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, grantor trusts, and other trusts.
Level 1 Inputs
Quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the reporting entity can access at the measurement date.
Level 2 Inputs
Inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability, either directly or indirectly.
Level 3 Inputs
Unobservable inputs for the asset or liability.
Liability Issued With an Inseparable Third-Party Credit Enhancement
A liability that is issued with a credit enhancement obtained from a third party, such as debt that is issued with a financial guarantee from a third party that guarantees the issuer’s payment obligation.
LIBOR Swap Rate
See London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) Swap Rate.
Line-of-Credit Arrangement
A line-of-credit or revolving-debt arrangement is an agreement that provides the borrower with the option to make multiple borrowings up to a specified maximum amount, to repay portions of previous borrowings, and to then reborrow under the same contract. Line-of-credit and revolving-debt arrangements may include both amounts drawn by the debtor (a debt instrument) and a commitment by the creditor to make additional amounts available to the debtor under predefined terms (a loan commitment).
Loan Commitment
Loan commitments are legally binding commitments to extend credit to a counterparty under certain prespecified terms and conditions. They have fixed expiration dates and may either be fixed-rate or variable-rate. Loan commitments can be either of the following:
  1. Revolving (in which the amount of the overall commitment is reestablished upon repayment of previously drawn amounts)
  2. Nonrevolving (in which the amount of the overall commitment is not reestablished upon repayment of previously drawn amounts).
Loan commitments can be distributed through syndication arrangements, in which one entity acts as a lead and an agent on behalf of other entities that will each extend credit to a single borrower. Loan commitments generally permit the lender to terminate the arrangement under the terms of covenants negotiated under the agreement.
Loan Participation
A transaction in which a single lender makes a large loan to a borrower and subsequently transfers undivided interests in the loan to groups of banks or other entities.
Loan Syndication
A transaction in which several lenders share in lending to a single borrower. Each lender loans a specific amount to the borrower and has the right to repayment from the borrower. It is common for groups of lenders to jointly fund those loans when the amount borrowed is greater than any one lender is willing to lend.
Local Currency
The currency of a particular country being referred to.
Lock-Box Arrangement
An arrangement with a lender whereby the borrower’s customers are required to remit payments directly to the lender and amounts received are applied to reduce the debt outstanding. A lock-box arrangement refers to any situation in which the borrower does not have the ability to avoid using working capital to repay the amounts outstanding. That is, the contractual provisions of a loan arrangement require that, in the ordinary course of business and without another event occurring, the cash receipts of a debtor are used to repay the existing obligation.
London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) Swap Rate
The fixed rate on a single-currency, constant-notional interest rate swap that has its variable-rate leg referenced to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) with no additional spread over LIBOR on that variable-rate leg. That fixed rate is the derived rate that would result in the swap having a zero fair value at inception because the present value of fixed cash flows, based on that rate, equate to the present value of the variable cash flows.
Long-Term Obligations
Long-term obligations are those scheduled to mature beyond one year (or the operating cycle, if applicable) from the date of an entity’s balance sheet.
Loss Contingency
An existing condition, situation, or set of circumstances involving uncertainty as to possible loss to an entity that will ultimately be resolved when one or more future events occur or fail to occur. The term loss is used for convenience to include many charges against income that are commonly referred to as expenses and others that are commonly referred to as losses.
Make-Whole Provision
A contractual option that gives a debtor (that is, an issuer) the right to pay off debt before maturity at a significant premium over the fair value of the debt at the date of settlement.
Management
Persons who are responsible for achieving the objectives of the entity and who have the authority to establish policies and make decisions by which those objectives are to be pursued. Management normally includes members of the board of directors, the chief executive officer, chief operating officer, vice presidents in charge of principal business functions (such as sales, administration, or finance), and other persons who perform similar policy making functions. Persons without formal titles also may be members of management.
Mandatorily Redeemable Financial Instrument
Any of various financial instruments issued in the form of shares that embody an unconditional obligation requiring the issuer to redeem the instrument by transferring its assets at a specified or determinable date (or dates) or upon an event that is certain to occur.
Market Approach
A valuation approach that uses prices and other relevant information generated by market transactions involving identical or comparable (that is, similar) assets, liabilities, or a group of assets and liabilities, such as a business.
Market-Corroborated Inputs
Inputs that are derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data by correlation or other means.
Market Participants
Buyers and sellers in the principal (or most advantageous) market for the asset or liability that have all of the following characteristics:
  1. They are independent of each other, that is, they are not related parties, although the price in a related-party transaction may be used as an input to a fair value measurement if the reporting entity has evidence that the transaction was entered into at market terms
  2. They are knowledgeable, having a reasonable understanding about the asset or liability and the transaction using all available information, including information that might be obtained through due diligence efforts that are usual and customary
  3. They are able to enter into a transaction for the asset or liability
  4. They are willing to enter into a transaction for the asset or liability, that is, they are motivated but not forced or otherwise compelled to do so.
Market Risk
The risk that the fair value or future cash flows of a financial instrument will fluctuate because of changes in market prices. Market risk comprises the following:
  1. Interest rate risk
  2. Currency risk
  3. Other price risk.
Monetary Assets and Liabilities
Monetary assets and liabilities are assets and liabilities whose amounts are fixed in terms of units of currency by contract or otherwise. Examples are cash, short- or long-term accounts and notes receivable in cash, and short- or long-term accounts and notes payable in cash.
Monetary Value
What the fair value of the cash, shares, or other instruments that a financial instrument obligates the issuer to convey to the holder would be at the settlement date under specified market conditions.
Net Carrying Amount of Debt
Net carrying amount of debt is the amount due at maturity, adjusted for unamortized premium, discount, and cost of issuance.
Net Cash Settlement
A form of settling a financial instrument under which the entity with a loss delivers to the entity with a gain cash equal to the gain.
Net Income
A measure of financial performance resulting from the aggregation of revenues, expenses, gains, and losses that are not items of other comprehensive income. A variety of other terms such as net earnings or earnings may be used to describe net income.
Net Share Settlement
A form of settling a financial instrument under which the entity with a loss delivers to the entity with a gain shares of stock with a current fair value equal to the gain.
New Basis Event
See Remeasurement Event.
Noncontrolling Interest
The portion of equity (net assets) in a subsidiary not attributable, directly or indirectly, to a parent. A noncontrolling interest is sometimes called a minority interest.
Nonfinancial Asset
An asset that is not a financial asset. Nonfinancial assets include land, buildings, use of facilities or utilities, materials and supplies, intangible assets, or services.
Nonperformance Risk
The risk that an entity will not fulfill an obligation. Nonperformance risk includes, but may not be limited to, the reporting entity’s own credit risk.
Nonpublic Entity
Any entity that does not meet any of the following conditions:
  1. Its debt or equity securities trade in a public market either on a stock exchange (domestic or foreign) or in an over-the-counter market, including securities quoted only locally or regionally.
  2. It is a conduit bond obligor for conduit debt securities that are traded in a public market (a domestic or foreign stock exchange or an over-the-counter market, including local or regional markets).
  3. It files with a regulatory agency in preparation for the sale of any class of debt or equity securities in a public market.
  4. It is required to file or furnish financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
  5. It is controlled by an entity covered by criteria (a) through (d).
Not-for-Profit Entity
An entity that possesses the following characteristics, in varying degrees, that distinguish it from a business entity:
  1. Contributions of significant amounts of resources from resource providers who do not expect commensurate or proportionate pecuniary return
  2. Operating purposes other than to provide goods or services at a profit
  3. Absence of ownership interests like those of business entities.
Entities that clearly fall outside this definition include the following:
  1. All investor-owned entities
  2. Entities that provide dividends, lower costs, or other economic benefits directly and proportionately to their owners, members, or participants, such as mutual insurance entities, credit unions, farm and rural electric cooperatives, and employee benefit plans.
Notional Amount
A number of currency units, shares, bushels, pounds, or other units specified in a derivative instrument. Sometimes other names are used. For example, the notional amount is called a face amount in some contracts.
Obligation
A conditional or unconditional duty or responsibility to transfer assets or to issue equity shares. Because Topic 480 relates only to financial instruments and not to contracts to provide services and other types of contracts, but includes duties or responsibilities to issue equity shares, this definition of obligation differs from the definition found in FASB Concepts Statement No. 6, Elements of Financial Statements, and is applicable only for items in the scope of that Topic.
Observable Inputs
Inputs that are developed using market data, such as publicly available information about actual events or transactions, and that reflect the assumptions that market participants would use when pricing the asset or liability.
Operating Cycle
The average time intervening between the acquisition of materials or services and the final cash realization constitutes an operating cycle.
Operating Activities
Operating activities include all transactions and other events that are not defined as investing or financing activities (see paragraphs 230-10-45-12 through 45-15). Operating activities generally involve producing and delivering goods and providing services. Cash flows from operating activities are generally the cash effects of transactions and other events that enter into the determination of net income.
Orderly Transaction
A transaction that assumes exposure to the market for a period before the measurement date to allow for marketing activities that are usual and customary for transactions involving such assets or liabilities; it is not a forced transaction (for example, a forced liquidation or distress sale).
Other Comprehensive Income
Revenues, expenses, gains, and losses that under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are included in comprehensive income but excluded from net income.
Other Price Risk
The risk that the fair value or future cash flows of a financial instrument will fluctuate because of changes in market prices (other than those arising from interest rate risk or currency risk), whether those changes are caused by factors specific to the individual financial instrument or its issuer or by factors affecting all similar financial instruments traded in the market.
Parent
An entity that has a controlling financial interest in one or more subsidiaries. (Also, an entity that is the primary beneficiary of a variable interest entity.)
Participating Interest
Paragraph 860-10-40-6A defines the term participating interest.
Participating Security
A security that may participate in undistributed earnings with common stock, whether that participation is conditioned upon the occurrence of a specified event or not. The form of such participation does not have to be a dividend — that is, any form of participation in undistributed earnings would constitute participation by that security, regardless of whether the payment to the security holder was referred to as a dividend.
Participation Rights
Contractual rights of security holders to receive dividends or returns from the security issuer’s profits, cash flows, or returns on investments.
Payment-in-Kind Bonds
Bonds in which the issuer has the option at each interest payment date of making interest payments in cash or in additional debt securities. Those additional debt securities are referred to as baby or bunny bonds. Baby bonds generally have the same terms, including maturity dates and interest rates, as the original bonds (parent payment-in-kind bonds). Interest on baby bonds may also be paid in cash or in additional like-kind debt securities at the option of the issuer.
Payment Provision
A payment provision specifies a fixed or determinable settlement to be made if the underlying behaves in a specified manner.
Physical Settlement
A form of settling a financial instrument under which both of the following conditions are met:
  1. The party designated in the contract as the buyer delivers the full stated amount of cash or other financial instruments to the seller.
  2. The seller delivers the full stated number of shares of stock or other financial instruments or nonfinancial instruments to the buyer.
PIK Bonds
See Payment-in-Kind Bonds.
Preferred Stock
A security that has preferential rights compared to common stock.
Premium
The excess of the net proceeds, after expense, received upon issuance of debt over the amount repayable at its maturity. See Discount.
Prepayable
Able to be settled by either party before its scheduled maturity.
Present Value
A tool used to link future amounts (cash flows or values) to a present amount using a discount rate (an application of the income approach). Present value techniques differ in how they adjust for risk and in the type of cash flows they use. See Discount Rate Adjustment Technique.
Principal Owners
Owners of record or known beneficial owners of more than 10 percent of the voting interests of the entity.
Private Company
An entity other than a public business entity, a not-for-profit entity, or an employee benefit plan within the scope of Topics 960 through 965 on plan accounting.
Probable
The future event or events are likely to occur.
Product Financing Arrangement
A product financing arrangement is a transaction in which an entity sells and agrees to repurchase inventory with the repurchase price equal to the original sale price plus carrying and financing costs, or other similar transactions.
Public Business Entity
A public business entity is a business entity meeting any one of the criteria below. Neither a not-for-profit entity nor an employee benefit plan is a business entity.
  1. It is required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to file or furnish financial statements, or does file or furnish financial statements (including voluntary filers), with the SEC (including other entities whose financial statements or financial information are required to be or are included in a filing).
  2. It is required by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Act), as amended, or rules or regulations promulgated under the Act, to file or furnish financial statements with a regulatory agency other than the SEC.
  3. It is required to file or furnish financial statements with a foreign or domestic regulatory agency in preparation for the sale of or for purposes of issuing securities that are not subject to contractual restrictions on transfer.
  4. It has issued, or is a conduit bond obligor for, securities that are traded, listed, or quoted on an exchange or an over-the-counter market.
  5. It has one or more securities that are not subject to contractual restrictions on transfer, and it is required by law, contract, or regulation to prepare U.S. GAAP financial statements (including notes) and make them publicly available on a periodic basis (for example, interim or annual periods). An entity must meet both of these conditions to meet this criterion.
An entity may meet the definition of a public business entity solely because its financial statements or financial information is included in another entity’s filing with the SEC. In that case, the entity is only a public business entity for purposes of financial statements that are filed or furnished with the SEC.
Public Debt Issuance
A public debt issuance occurs when a debtor issues a number of identical debt instruments to an underwriter that sells the debt instruments (in the form of securities) to various investors.
Public Entity
An entity that meets any of the following criteria:
  1. Has equity securities that trade in a public market, either on a stock exchange (domestic or foreign) or in an over-the-counter market, including securities quoted only locally or regionally
  2. Makes a filing with a regulatory agency in preparation for the sale of any class of equity securities in a public market
  3. Is controlled by an entity covered by the preceding criteria. That is, a subsidiary of a public entity is itself a public entity.
An entity that has only debt securities trading in a public market (or that has made a filing with a regulatory agency in preparation to trade only debt securities) is not a public entity.
Reacquisition Price of Debt
The amount paid on extinguishment, including a call premium and miscellaneous costs of reacquisition. If extinguishment is achieved by a direct exchange of new securities, the reacquisition price is the total present value of the new securities.
Readily Convertible to Cash
Assets that are readily convertible to cash have both of the following:
  1. Interchangeable (fungible) units
  2. Quoted prices available in an active market that can rapidly absorb the quantity held by the entity without significantly affecting the price.
(Based on paragraph 83(a) of FASB Concepts Statement No. 5, Recognition and Measurement in Financial Statements of Business Enterprises.)
Reasonably Possible
The chance of the future event or events occurring is more than remote but less than likely.
Reclassification Adjustments
Adjustments made to avoid double counting in comprehensive income items that are displayed as part of net income for a period that also had been displayed as part of other comprehensive income in that period or earlier periods.
Registration Payment Arrangement
An arrangement with both of the following characteristics:
  1. It specifies that the issuer will endeavor to do either of the following:
    1. File a registration statement for the resale of specified financial instruments and/or for the resale of equity shares that are issuable upon exercise or conversion of specified financial instruments and for that registration statement to be declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (or other applicable securities regulator if the registration statement will be filed in a foreign jurisdiction) within a specified grace period
    2. Maintain the effectiveness of the registration statement for a specified period of time (or in perpetuity).
  2. It requires the issuer to transfer consideration to the counterparty if the registration statement for the resale of the financial instrument or instruments subject to the arrangement is not declared effective or if effectiveness of the registration statement is not maintained. That consideration may be payable in a lump sum or it may be payable periodically, and the form of the consideration may vary. For example, the consideration may be in the form of cash, equity instruments, or adjustments to the terms of the financial instrument or instruments that are subject to the registration payment arrangement (such as an increased interest rate on a debt instrument).
Related Parties
Related parties include:
  1. Affiliates of the entity
  2. Entities for which investments in their equity securities would be required, absent the election of the fair value option under the Fair Value Option Subsection of Section 825-10-15, to be accounted for by the equity method by the investing entity
  3. Trusts for the benefit of employees, such as pension and profit-sharing trusts that are managed by or under the trusteeship of management
  4. Principal owners of the entity and members of their immediate families
  5. Management of the entity and members of their immediate families
  6. Other parties with which the entity may deal if one party controls or can significantly influence the management or operating policies of the other to an extent that one of the transacting parties might be prevented from fully pursuing its own separate interests
  7. Other parties that can significantly influence the management or operating policies of the transacting parties or that have an ownership interest in one of the transacting parties and can significantly influence the other to an extent that one or more of the transacting parties might be prevented from fully pursuing its own separate interests.
Remeasurement Event
A remeasurement (new basis) event is an event identified in other authoritative accounting literature, other than the measurement of an impairment under Topic 321 or credit loss under Topic 326, that requires a financial instrument to be remeasured to its fair value at the time of the event but does not require that financial instrument to be reported at fair value continually with the change in fair value recognized in earnings. Examples of remeasurement events are business combinations and significant modifications of debt as discussed in paragraph 470-50-40-6.
Remote
The chance of the future event or events occurring is slight.
Reporting Currency
The currency in which a reporting entity prepares its financial statements.
Reporting Entity
An entity or group whose financial statements are being referred to. Those financial statements reflect any of the following:
  1. The financial statements of one or more foreign operations by combination, consolidation, or equity accounting
  2. Foreign currency transactions.
Repurchase Agreement
An agreement under which the transferor (repo party) transfers a financial asset to a transferee (repo counterparty or reverse party) in exchange for cash and concurrently agrees to reacquire that financial asset at a future date for an amount equal to the cash exchanged plus or minus a stipulated interest factor. Instead of cash, other securities or letters of credit sometimes are exchanged. Some repurchase agreements call for repurchase of financial assets that need not be identical to the financial assets transferred.
Repurchase Agreement Accounted for as a Collateralized Borrowing
A repurchase agreement (repo) refers to a transaction in which a seller-borrower of securities sells those securities to a buyer-lender with an agreement to repurchase them at a stated price plus interest at a specified date or in specified circumstances. A repurchase agreement accounted for as a collateralized borrowing is a repo that does not qualify for sale accounting under Topic 860. The payable under a repurchase agreement accounted for as a collateralized borrowing refers to the amount of the seller-borrower’s obligation recognized for the future repurchase of the securities from the buyer-lender. In certain industries, the terminology is reversed; that is, entities in those industries refer to this type of agreement as a reverse repo.
Restatement
The process of revising previously issued financial statements to reflect the correction of an error in those financial statements.
Retrospective Application
The application of a different accounting principle to one or more previously issued financial statements, or to the statement of financial position at the beginning of the current period, as if that principle had always been used, or a change to financial statements of prior accounting periods to present the financial statements of a new reporting entity as if it had existed in those prior years.
Revenue
Inflows or other enhancements of assets of an entity or settlements of its liabilities (or a combination of both) from delivering or producing goods, rendering services, or other activities that constitute the entity’s ongoing major or central operations.
Reverse Repurchase Agreement Accounted for as a Collateralized Borrowing
A reverse repurchase agreement accounted for as a collateralized borrowing (also known as a reverse repo) refers to a transaction that is accounted for as a collateralized lending in which a buyer-lender buys securities with an agreement to resell them to the seller-borrower at a stated price plus interest at a specified date or in specified circumstances. The receivable under a reverse repurchase agreement accounted for as a collateralized borrowing refers to the amount due from the seller-borrower for the repurchase of the securities from the buyer-lender. In certain industries, the terminology is reversed; that is, entities in those industries refer to this type of agreement as a repo.
Right of Setoff
A right of setoff is a debtor’s legal right, by contract or otherwise, to discharge all or a portion of the debt owed to another party by applying against the debt an amount that the other party owes to the debtor.
Risk Premium
Compensation sought by risk-averse market participants for bearing the uncertainty inherent in the cash flows of an asset or a liability. Also referred to as a risk adjustment.
Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) Overnight Index Swap Rate
The fixed rate on a U.S. dollar, constant-notional interest rate swap that has its variable-rate leg referenced to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) (an overnight rate) with no additional spread over SOFR on that variable-rate leg. That fixed rate is the derived rate that would result in the swap having a zero fair value at inception because the present value of fixed cash flows, based on that rate, equates to the present value of the variable cash flows.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Filer
An entity that is required to file or furnish its financial statements with either of the following:
  1. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
  2. With respect to an entity subject to Section 12(i) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the appropriate agency under that Section.
Financial statements for other entities that are not otherwise SEC filers whose financial statements are included in a submission by another SEC filer are not included within this definition.
Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Municipal Swap Rate
The fixed rate on a U.S. dollar, constant-notional interest rate swap that has its variable-rate leg referenced to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Municipal Swap Index with no additional spread over the SIFMA Municipal Swap Index on that variable-rate leg. That fixed rate is the derived rate that would result in the swap having a zero fair value at inception because the present value of fixed cash flows, based on that rate, equates to the present value of the variable cash flows.
Securitization
The process by which financial assets are transformed into securities.
Security
A share, participation, or other interest in property or in an entity of the issuer or an obligation of the issuer that has all of the following characteristics:
  1. It is either represented by an instrument issued in bearer or registered form or, if not represented by an instrument, is registered in books maintained to record transfers by or on behalf of the issuer.
  2. It is of a type commonly dealt in on securities exchanges or markets or, when represented by an instrument, is commonly recognized in any area in which it is issued or dealt in as a medium for investment.
  3. It either is one of a class or series or by its terms is divisible into a class or series of shares, participations, interests, or obligations.
Set-Off Right
A common law right of a party that is both a debtor and a creditor to the same counterparty to reduce its obligation to that counterparty if that counterparty fails to pay its obligation.
Share-Based Payment Arrangements
An arrangement under which either of the following conditions is met:
  1. One or more suppliers of goods or services (including employees) receive awards of equity shares, equity share options, or other equity instruments.
  2. The entity incurs liabilities to suppliers that meet either of the following conditions:
    1. The amounts are based, at least in part, on the price of the entity’s shares or other equity instruments. (The phrase at least in part is used because an award may be indexed to both the price of the entity’s shares and something other than either the price of the entity’s shares or a market, performance, or service condition.)
    2. The awards require or may require settlement by issuance of the entity’s shares.
The term shares includes various forms of ownership interest that may not take the legal form of securities (for example, partnership interests), as well as other interests, including those that are liabilities in substance but not in form. Equity shares refers only to shares that are accounted for as equity.
Also called share-based compensation arrangements.
Shares
Shares includes various forms of ownership that may not take the legal form of securities (for example, partnership interests), as well as other interests, including those that are liabilities in substance but not in form. (Business entities have interest holders that are commonly known by specialized names, such as stockholders, partners, and proprietors, and by more general names, such as investors, but all are encompassed by the descriptive term owners. Equity of business entities is, thus, commonly known by several names, such as owners’ equity, stockholders’ equity, ownership, equity capital, partners’ capital, and proprietorship. Some entities [for example, mutual organizations] do not have stockholders, partners, or proprietors in the usual sense of those terms but do have participants whose interests are essentially ownership interests, residual interests, or both.)
Short-Term Obligations
Short-term obligations are those that are scheduled to mature within one year after the date of an entity’s balance sheet or, for those entities that use the operating cycle concept of working capital described in paragraphs 210-10-45-3 and 210-10-45-7, within an entity’s operating cycle that is longer than one year.
Spot Rate
The exchange rate for immediate delivery of currencies exchanged.
Springing Lock-Box Arrangement
Some borrowings outstanding under a revolving credit agreement include both a subjective acceleration clause and a requirement to maintain a springing lock-box arrangement, whereby remittances from the borrower’s customers are forwarded to the debtor’s general bank account and do not reduce the debt outstanding until and unless the lender exercises the subjective acceleration clause.
Standard Antidilution Provisions
Standard antidilution provisions are those that result in adjustments to the conversion ratio in the event of an equity restructuring transaction that are designed to maintain the value of the conversion option.
Standstill Agreement
An agreement signed by the investee and investor under which the investor agrees to limit its shareholding in the investee.
Step Bonds
Bonds that involve a combination of deferred-interest payment dates and increasing interest payment amounts over the bond lives and, thus, bear some similarity to zero-coupon bonds and to traditional debentures.
Stock Dividend
An issuance by a corporation of its own common shares to its common shareholders without consideration and under conditions indicating that such action is prompted mainly by a desire to give the recipient shareholders some ostensibly separate evidence of a part of their respective interests in accumulated corporate earnings without distribution of cash or other property that the board of directors deems necessary or desirable to retain in the business. A stock dividend takes nothing from the property of the corporation and adds nothing to the interests of the stockholders; that is, the corporation’s property is not diminished and the interests of the stockholders are not increased. The proportional interest of each shareholder remains the same.
Stock Split
An issuance by a corporation of its own common shares to its common shareholders without consideration and under conditions indicating that such action is prompted mainly by a desire to increase the number of outstanding shares for the purpose of effecting a reduction in their unit market price and, thereby, of obtaining wider distribution and improved marketability of the shares. Sometimes called a stock split-up.
Stub Period
Interest rate swaps with variable rates based on the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) typically reset at three-month or six-month intervals. Often, swaps may trade on interim dates that do not correspond to a swap reset date. Calendar dates that are swap reset and payment dates are set by market convention. A swap that resets quarterly may have a first payment period that is shorter than a full quarter, such as 30 days versus 90 days. Because the first payment period is not equal to a full quarter, it is referred to as a stub period. That stub period is the period that begins on the date coupon payments begin to accrue and ends on the first payment date.
Stub Rate
The stub rate is the variable rate that corresponds to the length of a stub period.
Subjective Acceleration Clause
A subjective acceleration clause is a provision in a debt agreement that states that the creditor may accelerate the scheduled maturities of the obligation under conditions that are not objectively determinable (for example, if the debtor fails to maintain satisfactory operations or if a material adverse change occurs).
Subsequent Events
Events or transactions that occur after the balance sheet date but before financial statements are issued or are available to be issued. There are two types of subsequent events:
  1. The first type consists of events or transactions that provide additional evidence about conditions that existed at the date of the balance sheet, including the estimates inherent in the process of preparing financial statements (that is, recognized subsequent events).
  2. The second type consists of events that provide evidence about conditions that did not exist at the date of the balance sheet but arose subsequent to that date (that is, nonrecognized subsequent events).
Subsidiary
An entity, including an unincorporated entity such as a partnership or trust, in which another entity, known as its parent, holds a controlling financial interest. (Also, a variable interest entity that is consolidated by a primary beneficiary.)
Substantive Conversion Feature
A conversion feature that is at least reasonably possible of being exercisable in the future absent the issuer’s exercise of a call option.
Synthetic Instrument Accounting
Synthetic instrument accounting views two or more distinct financial instruments (generally a cash instrument and a derivative instrument) as having synthetically created another single cash instrument. The objective of synthetic instrument accounting is to present those multiple instruments in the financial statements as if they were the single instrument that the entity sought to create. Paragraph 815-10-25-4 states that synthetic instrument accounting is prohibited.
Time of Issuance
The date when agreement as to terms has been reached and announced, even though the agreement is subject to certain further actions, such as directors’ or stockholders’ approval.
Time of Restructuring
Troubled debt restructurings may occur before, at, or after the stated maturity of debt, and time may elapse between the agreement, court order, and so forth, and the transfer of assets or equity interest, the effective date of new terms, or the occurrence of another event that constitutes consummation of the restructuring. The date of consummation is the time of the restructuring.
Time Value of an Option
The time value of an option is equal to the fair value of an option less its intrinsic value.
Transaction
An external event involving transfer of something of value (future economic benefit) between two (or more) entities. (See FASB Concepts Statement No. 6, Elements of Financial Statements.)
Transaction Costs
The costs to sell an asset or transfer a liability in the principal (or most advantageous) market for the asset or liability that are directly attributable to the disposal of the asset or the transfer of the liability and meet both of the following criteria:
  1. They result directly from and are essential to that transaction.
  2. They would not have been incurred by the entity had the decision to sell the asset or transfer the liability not been made (similar to costs to sell, as defined in paragraph 360-10-35-38).
Transaction Date
The date at which a transaction (for example, a sale or purchase of merchandise or services) is recorded in accounting records in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). A long-term commitment may have more than one transaction date (for example, the due date of each progress payment under a construction contract is an anticipated transaction date).
Transaction Gain or Loss
Transaction gains or losses result from a change in exchange rates between the functional currency and the currency in which a foreign currency transaction is denominated. They represent an increase or decrease in both of the following:
  1. The actual functional currency cash flows realized upon settlement of foreign currency transactions
  2. The expected functional currency cash flows on unsettled foreign currency transactions.
Translation
See Foreign Currency Translation.
Translation Adjustments
Translation adjustments result from the process of translating financial statements from the entity’s functional currency into the reporting currency.
Treasury Stock Method
A method of recognizing the use of proceeds that could be obtained upon exercise of options and warrants in computing diluted EPS. It assumes that any proceeds would be used to purchase common stock at the average market price during the period.
Troubled Debt Restructuring
A restructuring of a debt constitutes a troubled debt restructuring if the creditor for economic or legal reasons related to the debtor’s financial difficulties grants a concession to the debtor that it would not otherwise consider.
Underlying
A specified interest rate, security price, commodity price, foreign exchange rate, index of prices or rates, or other variable (including the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a specified event such as a scheduled payment under a contract). An underlying may be a price or rate of an asset or liability but is not the asset or liability itself. An underlying is a variable that, along with either a notional amount or a payment provision, determines the settlement of a derivative instrument.
Unit of Account
The level at which an asset or a liability is aggregated or disaggregated in a Topic for recognition purposes.
Units-of-Revenue Method
A method of amortizing deferred revenue that arises under certain sales of future revenues. Under this method, amortization for a period is calculated by computing a ratio of the proceeds received from the investor to the total payments expected to be made to the investor over the term of the agreement, and then applying that ratio to the period’s cash payment.
Unobservable Inputs
Inputs for which market data are not available and that are developed using the best information available about the assumptions that market participants would use when pricing the asset or liability.
Violation of a Provision
The failure to meet a condition in a debt agreement or a breach of a provision in the agreement for which compliance is objectively determinable, whether or not a grace period is allowed or the creditor is required to give notice of its intention to demand repayment.
Warrant
A security that gives the holder the right to purchase shares of common stock in accordance with the terms of the instrument, usually upon payment of a specified amount.
Weather Derivative
A forward-based or option-based contract for which settlement is based on a climatic or geological variable. One example of such a variable is the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a specified amount of snow at a specified location within a specified period of time.
Working Capital
Working capital (also called net working capital) is represented by the excess of current assets over current liabilities and identifies the relatively liquid portion of total entity capital that constitutes a margin or buffer for meeting obligations within the ordinary operating cycle of the entity.
Zero-Coupon Method
A swap valuation method that involves computing and summing the present value of each future net settlement that would be required by the contract terms if future spot interest rates match the forward rates implied by the current yield curve. The discount rates used are the spot interest rates implied by the current yield curve for hypothetical zero coupon bonds due on the date of each future net settlement on the swap.