A-Z of the Financial Crisis

Welcome to our compendium of the financial crisis. The links below will take you to simple but robust explanations of some of the key concepts and terms behind the unprecedented problems facing the financial system. We also look at key players and the biggest victims of events so far.

Let us know if you think we've left anything out (we unquestionably have), or if you think any of our explanations require more colour. If you have any questions about any of the terms listed, leave them at the bottom of the entry and we will endeavour to come in and answer them.

We'll be updating the entries regularly and will be sending email alerts to inform graduate readers of new entries. If you want to land a first job in investment banking in 2009, we hope this will prove an invaluable resource to help get you through the interview.


AIG*
Alt A
Asset backed securities (ABS)
Babcock & Brown
Bailout
Basel II
Bear Stearns
Ben Bernanke
Black swan
BNP Paribas
Bradford & Bingley
Broker dealer model
Capital
Capital adequacy
Collateralized debt obligations (CDO)*
Credit default swaps (CDS)*
Collateralized loan obligations (CLO)
Commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS)
Credit crunch
Credit spread
Deficit*
Discount window
European Central Bank (ECB)
Federal Reserve (The Fed)*
Fannie and Freddie
Great Depression
Haircut
Hank Paulson
HBOS
Hedging
Iceland
IKB
IndyMac
Japan
Jérôme Kerviel
Lehman Brothers
Leverage
London Inter Bank Offer Rate (LIBOR)*
Liquidity
Marking to market
Meltdown
Merrill Lynch
Money market
Moral hazard
Mortgage backed security (MBS)
Northern Rock
Prime
Ratings agencies
Rights issue
Securitization
Short selling
Structured investment vehicle (SIV)
Special purpose entity (SPE)
Sub-prime
TARP (The Troubled Asset Relief Programme)
Toxic assets
UBS
Value at Risk (VaR)
Washington Mutual
Writedown


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