Glossary

 

  • Fiduciary money

    All the banknotes and coins issued by the national central bank and held by economic agents.

  • Financial Stability Forum

    The Financial Stability Forum was set up in April 1999 to strengthen international cooperation and coordination in the supervision of financial markets. The forum has 42 members: apart from the chairman, who is appointed personally, three representatives of each G7 country (the Ministry of Finance, the central bank and the principal supervisory authority), one representative of the central banks of Australia, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Singapore, two representatives from the IMF and two from the World Bank, one representative from the OECD and one from the BIS, there are two representatives from each of the following institutions: the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and one representative from each of the two central bank committees of experts, namely the Committee on the Global Financial System (CGFS) and the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems.

  • Financial accounts

    Accounts describing the financial assets (at a given moment) and financial transactions (during a given period) of the main sectors of the national economy (financial institutions, non-financial corporations, households and general government) by category of instrument (fiduciary money, deposits, securities, credit, etc.).

  • Financial institution

    Undertaking whose main function consists in entering into financial commitments (collecting deposits, issuing bonds, etc.) and acquiring financial assets (granting credits, buying securities, etc.) or pursuing ancillary financial activities. Credit institutions, insurance companies, pension funds and investment enterprises are financial institutions.

  • Fine-tuning operation

    A non-regular open market operation executed on a non regular basis and mainly in order to stabilise very-short-term money market interest rates in cases of unexpected liquidity fluctuations (e.g. strong demand for banknotes tending to reduce the deposits of credit institutions with the Eurosystem).

  • Foreign exchange market

    Market where operators (financial institutions and companies) buy one currency with another and where exchange rates are thus established.

  • Foreign exchange reserves

    Deposits and securities in foreign currencies and gold, held by the central banks.

  • Foreign exchange swap

    Simultaneous spot and forward transactions exchanging one currency against another. The Eurosystem can execute open market operations in the form of foreign exchange swaps, where the national central banks (or the ECB) buy or sell euro spot against a foreign currency and, at the same time, sell or buy them back in a forward transaction.