GLOSSARY DIRECTORY
Real, plain-English definitions for the terms behind Disruption Banking's coverage.
World Federation of Exchanges (WFE)
World Federation of Exchanges (WFE)
Acumen Fund
Acumen is a $64 million charitable fund which raises charitable donations to invest into companies, leaders, and ideas who tackle…
Altcoin
Altcoins are alternative cryptocurrencies to bitcoin. Examples of altcoins include ripple, zcash, monero and dash. Altcoins can differ from Bitcoin…
ASEAN
The Association of Southeast Asian Countries is a regional body encompassing ten Southeast Asian countries, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and…
Automated Market Makers (AMMs)
According to Cryptopedia, AMMs ‘are part of the decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem. They allow digital assets to be traded in…
Avalanche
Avalanche is a secure blockchain platform with three use cases including Dapps
BaFin
BaFin operates in the public interest. Its primary objective is to ensure the proper functioning, stability and integrity of the German…
Bancor
Is a platform specializing in token exchanges. As the crypto market is dominated by cryptocurrency being able to be exchanged…
Big data mining
Big Data Mining The task of extracting useful and valuable information from massive datasets. Mining is perceived as useful because…
Bitcoin
According to Kraken, 'Bitcoin is an invention that, for the first time in history, enabled a group of software users…
Bitpesa
Digital foreign exchange and payment platform for frontier markets. BitPesa was founded in November 2013 by Elizabeth Rossiello with headquarters…
Blockchain Trilemma
Blockchain Trilemma is about the three benefits. Decentralization, Security and Scalability
BNB Chain
BNB Chain is the native blockchain for Binance
Bond Inversion
A Bond Inversion is when short term government debt trades at a premium to long term government debt. Widely perceived…
Byzantine Fault
A Byzantine fault is a condition of a computational system, specifically of distributed computing systems. This condition occurs when one or…
Cardano
Cardano is a blockchain platform developed using the Haskell programming language
Challenger bank
A challenger or neobank is the term used to define a new firm which offers alternative banking services to traditional…
CoinPip
A business that uses Bitcoin and Blockchain technology for faster, more transparent and cheaper transfers of payments, available in 200…
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
The mission of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is to promote the integrity, resilience, and vibrancy of the U.S. derivatives…
Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review
The Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, or CCAR, is a US regulatory framework which evaluates the capital planning processes and…
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau CFPB
The U.S Department of Treasury announced the creation of the CFPB in 2010. CFPB creates clear rules to implement the…
Cybersecurity
The protection of computer systems from theft or damage to their hardware, software or electronic data, as well as from…
dapp
You can think of a dapp as an app that is built on decentralized technology, rather than being built and…
Decision Tree
Decision Tree A diagram which uses dichotomy to informally detect credit card fraud in big data.
DeFi
A global, open alternative to every financial service you use today — savings, loans, trading, insurance and more — accessible…
DevOps
DevOps is the combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools
DevSecOps
DevSecOps or Development, Security, and Operations
Distributed ledger technology
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is one innovation that has been cited as a means of transforming payment, clearing, and settlement…
Dodd-Frank
The Dodd-Frank is the abbreviation for the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (signed into United States federal law in 2010…
Ethereum
Ethereum is a technology for building apps and organizations. Best known for smart contracts.
European Central Bank (ECB)
The European Central Bank (ECB) is the European Union's central bank of the 19 EU countries that have so far…
False Positive
A result which indicates that a given condition or element is present when it is in fact not.
FATCA
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is a law that requires U.S. citizens living at home or abroad to…
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
The Financial Conduct Authority is the conduct regulator for 59,000 financial services firms and financial markets in the UK and…
Financial Stability Board (FSB)
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. The…
FINRA
FINRA is a government-authorized not-for-profit organization that oversees U.S. broker-dealers. We work every day to ensure that everyone can participate…
GDPR
GDPR is a regulation that requires businesses to protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens for transactions that…
GovTech
Government Technology is an online platform that facilitates the use, news and research of smart technology used in government entities…
Grameen Foundation
Founded in 1997 and inspired by the work of Nobel Laureate and founder of Grameen Brank Professor Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen…
Green Bonds
According to Goldman Sachs, "green bonds are a fixed-income instrument where the capital raised is dedicated for programs that benefit…
Hedge Fund
A hedge fund is an investment fund that trades in highly liquid investments to make use of complex algorithmic, quantitative…
HICP
The Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is a list of the final costs paid by consumers for items in…
Howey Test
According to Investopedia, the Howey Test refers to the U.S. Supreme Court case for determining whether a transaction qualifies as…
ICO
ICO, which stands for "initial coin offering" and is coined from IPO, is a new digital method for raising financial…
ICO token
A token or 'coin' is a cryptocurrency unit issued during an ICO. Buying certain amount of tokens allows the investors…
IFRS
The IFRS Foundation is a not-for-profit, public interest organisation established to develop a single set of high-quality, understandable, enforceable and…
International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is the international body that brings together the world's securities regulators and is…
International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA)
Since 1985, ISDA has worked to make the global derivatives markets safer and more efficient. Today, ISDA has over 950…
Internet of Things
The Internet of Things, or IoT, is the look at the interconnectivity of digital device chips in relation to data…
Kubernetes
Kubernetes (also known as k8s or “kube”) is an open source container orchestration platform that automates many of the manual…
KYC
KYC stands for “Know Your Customer”. In banking, it is a process by which banks obtain information about the identity and…
Layer 1
Layer 1 Blockchain
Layer 2
Layer 2 Blockchain
LIBOR
The London interbank offered rate for deposits. LIBOR is a reference rate for the international banking markets and is commonly…
Machine Learning
Is a particular sector within Artificial Intelligence that programs a machine to comb through vast swathes of data and make…
Memecoin
According to Crypto Dictionary, 'memecoins are mostly associated with Dogecoin, the first cryptocurrency that used a meme to get some…
Metaverse
According to Investopedia, the metaverse is a digital reality that combines aspects of social media, online gaming, augmented reality (AR), virtual…
MiFID
The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive is the EU legislation that regulates firms who provide services to clients linked to ‘financial instruments’,…
Mirabilis
An Israeli company that pioneered instant-messaging over the internet in 1996.
Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)
According to Economics Online, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England 'is a group of nine individuals who,…
NanoDeposit
1. A digital refundable cash deposit meant to establish trust between 2 unknown parties. 2. A digital refundable cash deposit…
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Natural language processing (NLP) is an interdisciplinary domain which is concerned with understanding natural languages as well as using them…
OECD
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is an entity that was founded in 1962 to stimulate growth with advanced…
Peer-to-peer lending
Peer-to-peer lending, also known as P2P, are marketplaces which bring together people or businesses that which to lend money to those…
Penetration testing
An evaluation activity whereby assessors search for vulnerabilities in a system and seek to penetrate it.
Private key
A confidential cryptographic key which is used to enable the operation of an asymmetric (public key) cryptographic algorithm.
PSD2
PSD2 is a European regulation for electronic payment services. It seeks to make payments more secure in Europe, boost innovation…
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)
The PCAOB oversees the audits of public companies and SEC-registered brokers and dealers in order to protect investors and further…
Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII)
Foreign investments in China were restricted due to foreign exchange control. In 2002, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the…
Quantitative Analyst (Finance)
A Quantitative Analyst or 'Quant' is an analyst that utilizes strictly mathematically-focused strategies of using qualitative data to model and…
Quotation Data
Quotation data can include information about both the best available prices at a given market (often called the “top of…
RDBMS
RDBMS, which stands for relationship database management system, is used to create, maintain, access and manipulate data. The first step…
Red team
A red team is an independent group that challenges an organization to improve its effectiveness by assuming an attacker’s role. This is…
Repurchase Agreement (repo)
A repurchase agreement (repo) is a form of short-term borrowing for dealers in government securities. In the case of a repo,…
Reserve currency
According to Investopedia, 'a reserve currency is a large quantity of currency maintained by central banks and other major financial institutions to…
Ripple
Ripple is built on the XRP Ledger and uses a consensus protocol and validators
Smart Contracts
According to Investopedia, 'a smart contract is a self-executing contract with the terms of the agreement between buyer and seller…
Solana
Solana is a permissionless blockchain which supports writing on-chain programs using Rust
Solidity
Solidity programming language for Ethereum
Stablecoin
According to Investopedia, 'a stablecoin is a new class of cryptocurrencies that attempts to offer price stability and are backed…
STOX
STOX is a mass market forecasting platform run in collaboration with Invest.com Group, which develops financial investment solutions. The innovation…
SushiSwap
According to Kraken, 'SushiSwap is a software running on Ethereum that seels to incentivize a network of users to operate…
Tezos
Tezos is an open-source platform for assets and applications. It offers a platform to create smart contracts.
The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA)
The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) is the global representative of the alternative investment industry, with around 2,000 corporate members…
The Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities Markets Standards Board (FMSB)
The Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities Markets Standards Board (FMSB) is practitioner led, funded by members and operated by the…
Tokyo Commodities Exchange
Tokyo Commodities Exchange , also known as TOCOM, is not only Japan’s primary commodity exchange; it is one of the most important…
TRON
TRON is a blockchain that uses Solidity and Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)
Uniswap
Uniswap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Ethereum blockchain. It is an open-source protocol that allows users to…
Venture Capital Fund
Venture Capital is money from private individuals and groups of, to be funneled into newly and establishing founded companies in…
Virgin Galactic
Ths is a brand under the name of Virgin, the goal of which is to build, man and fly spaceships…
Web3
Web3 refers to a decentralized online ecosystem based on the blockchain. Platforms and apps built on Web3 won’t be owned…
Web3.0
Web 3.0 is the next generation of the Internet. It is also known as semantic web and is an extension…
World Economic Forum
The WEF that meets annually in Davos, Switzerland, is an independent international organization dedicated to collaboration across the stages of…
Zopa
Zopa was the first peer-to-peer lending company. Based in the UK. In January 2017, Zopa became the first UK based…