UBS Dictionary of Banking

G7
Abbreviation for Group of 7, a group comprising the major industrialized nations in economic terms, which in view of the global economic importance of the member states have made it their objective to coordinate their respective economic policies.

Ga

gain / anziehen / hausser / aumento
Increase in the price or rate of securities, foreign exchange, bank notes, etc.

gamma / Gamma / gamma / gamma
Statistical measure of the absolute change in the delta of an option when the price of the underlying moves.

gap / Gap / écart / divario
Sharp price leap between two exchange trading sessions.

gateway
Electronic gateway, e.g. at the Swiss Exchange, linking trader systems with the exchange system. Guarantees equal treatment of exchange members.

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Gd

GDP / BIP / PIB / PIL
Abbr. for gross domestic product.

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Ge

gearing / Hebelfaktor / gearing / fattore leva
UK synonym for leverage. Indicates how much more an options investment can earn than an equity investment with the same initial capital outlay. The higher the gearing, the more volatile the option.

general business conditions / Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen (AGB) / conditions générales / condizioni generali
The principles and guidelines that govern business relations. They are an integral part of contracts concluded between a company (e.g. a bank) and any of numerous business partners.

general crossed cheque / allgemein gekreuzter Check / chèque à barrement général / assegno bancario con sbarramento generale
See crossed cheque.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles / Generally Accepted Accounting Principles / Generally Accepted Accounting Principles / Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
Abbreviation: GAAP. Mandatory US standards for the presentation of accounts. See also Swiss Accounting and Reporting Recommendations, International Financial Reporting Standards.

gentlemen's agreement / Gentlemen's Agreement / Gentlemen's Agreement / Gentlemen's Agreement
A voluntary agreement between parties secured only by the honour of the participants. In Switzerland, this expression is often applied to the agreements between the commercial banks and the Swiss National Bank.

German stock index
Abbr. DAX. Stock index, which measures the performance of the 30 largest German companies in terms of order book turnover and market capitalization.

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Gi

gilt-edged bonds
Highly rated bonds whose issuers have long-standing reputations for paying interest on time.

GIPS
Abbreviation of Global Investment Performance Standards.

giro transfer / Giro / transfert / bancogiro
(1) The cashless transfer of payments.
(2) Transfer by endorsement of an order instrument (e.g. bill of exchange).

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Gl

Glass-Steagall Act / Glass-Steagall Act / Glass-Steagall Act / Glass-Steagall Act
US banking law introduced in 1931 in response to the stock market crash of 1929 which prohibits commercial banks from engaging in investment banking and prevents deposit banks from dealing in securities.

global custody / Global custody / global custody / global custody
Comprehensive service for the management of large, globally diversified securities portfolios. The aim is to provide institutional investors with an efficient, transparent form of securities administration.

Global Investment Performance Standards / Global Investment Performance Standards / Global Investment Performance Standards / Global Investment Performance Standards
Abbreviation: GIPS. Recommendations issued by the Association for Investment Management and Research (AIMR) aimed at ensuring globally uniform and modern performance reporting. The objectives are to ensure full disclosure and fair presentation of the performance of asset managers, and also to enable performance comparisons. See also Swiss Performance Presentation Standards.

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Gn

GNP / BSP / PNB / PNL
Abbr. for gross national product.

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Go

go-go fund / Go-Go-Fund / go-go fund / go go fund
Investment fund promising investors superior earnings achieved by frequently shifting portfolio weightings (trading) and through speculative exposure. See also initial public offering.

going private / Going Private / going private / privatizzazione
Movement from public to private ownership of a company, typically when a shareholder or group of shareholders makes a public offer for the shares in outside ownership or when the shares are purchased by an outside private investor. Opposite: initial public offering.

going public
Synonym for initial public offering.

gold / Gold / or / oro
See precious metals.

gold clause / Goldklausel; Goldwertklausel / clause or / clausola oro
(1) Term in an agreement that certain payments must be effected in gold or gold coins.
(2) Agreement that the amount of certain payments must be linked to the value of fine gold or of specified gold coins (gold value clause).

gold coin / Goldmünze / pièce d'or / moneta d'oro
Coin minted from gold or gold alloys. Some gold coins are still valid as legal tender. In practice, however, all gold coins are traded at their market value, which is subject to continual fluctuations. Bullion coins have a market value broadly in line with their gold value.

gold coverage / Golddeckung / couverture-or / copertura aurea
Coverage of a country's banknotes in circulation by the official gold reserves. Abolished in Switzerland by the 2003 revision of the National Bank Law.

Gold GIPS / Gold GIPS / Gold GIPS / Gold GIPS
Revised version of the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) which introduces a number of important changes to the existing guidelines and also contains new provisions. The Gold GIPS are expected to come into force in 2006.

gold option / Goldoption / option sur l'or / opzione sull'oro
The right to buy or sell a specified amount of gold bullion at a stipulated price on the option expiration day.

gold parity / Goldparität / parité or / parità aurea
Legally stipulated amount of gold which is equivalent to one currency unit. The Swiss Federal Law on Currency and Legal Tender, which came into force on 1 May 2000, abolished the gold parity principle in Switzerland.

gold pool / Goldpool / pool de l'or / pool dell'oro
Short for Zurich gold pool. Name of the gold trading organization set up by Switzerland's big banks in March 1968 after a two-tier gold market had been created.

gold standard / Goldwährung / étalon or / gold standard
A system whereby notes issued are backed by gold. In place in the UK from 1821-1914. The system has the advantage that it gives an automatic check on inflation, and the drawback that the total of world trade must always be limited by the total output of gold in the world. Three conditions must be satisfied for a gold standard to work:
(1) there must be free mintage of gold into the standard legal coins;
(2) gold must be freely importable into or exportable from the country;
(3) the legal paper money of the country must be convertible by the central bank into gold on request.

golden rule of banking / goldene Bankregel / règle d'or de la liquidité bancaire / regola d'oro della liquidità bancaria
A principle which states that the maturities of the loans granted by a bank should be congruent with, or match, the maturities of the deposits used to finance such loans. According to the rule, short-term transactions should be financed with short-term money, long-term transactions with long-term funds.

good delivery / Good Delivery; Gute Lieferung / de bonne livraison / buona consegna
Stipulation in purchase and sale contracts that the precious metals, securities or merchandise delivered must meet the general delivery conditions of the market. The most widely accepted standard for gold and silver bars from companies and official bodies is the good delivery list maintained by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). Bars must bear the stamp of an approved melter or assayer.

good-till-cancelled / widerrufgültig / révocable / valido a revoca
See good-till-cancelled order.

good-till-cancelled order / widerrufgültiger Börsenauftrag; Good-till-cancelled-Auftrag / ordre à révocation / ordine good-till-cancelled
Also: GTC order. A stock exchange order which remains valid until executed or cancelled.

goodwill / Goodwill / survaleur / avviamento
The portion of the value of a company which is over and above its market price. It includes all intangible assets which are not reported on the balance sheet, such as the reputation and familiarity of a company and its products. Goodwill is of major importance in assessing the value of the company's stock.

government bond / Staatsanleihe; Regierungsanleihe
Also known as government paper, government issues. Bonds issued by a government to cover its financial obligations. In Switzerland, government bonds are issued by the Confederation and the cantons. See also Treasury bills, corporate bonds.

government paper
Synonym for government bond.

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Gr

grandfathered bond / Grandfathered bond
Bond issued before 1 March 2001 that have not been supplemented since 1 March 2002 whose interest income is not subject to the EU interest tax directive during a transitional period through 2010. Under the directive, 12 of the 15 old EU member states and all 10 new member states must be notified of cross-border interest payments to EU citizens. Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg require imposition of a source tax. The directive entered into effect in 2005.

greenback / Greenback / billet vert / greenback
Colloquial term for the US dollar.

greenmail / Greenmail / greenmail / greenmail
Repurchase by a company of shares acquired by a raider, with a view to preventing a complete takeover. Usually involves payment of a price considerably above the market value of the shares involved.

greenshoe / Greenshoe / greenshoe / greenshoe
An option permitting the underwriter of an initial public offering to issue more shares than originally planned if demand is substantially stronger than expected. The greenshoe enables an issuer to place additional shares on the market at the original conditions.

grey market / grauer Markt; Graumarkt / marché gris / mercato grigio
Illegal part of the capital market which is not regulated or not supervised by the state. It is used to trade securities which have not yet been issued before their subscription period ends. The grey market is a kind of forward transaction, as the investor purchases shares via the bank at the grey market price before their first listing.

gross domestic product / Bruttoinlandprodukt / produit intérieur brut / prodotto interno lordo
Abbr.: GDP. Measure of macroeconomic performance within the domestic economy over a given period of time. See also gross national product.

gross interest / Bruttoverzinsung / intérêt brut / interesse lordo
Interest paid before deduction of any taxes at source (such as withholding tax, excise tax, etc). Opposite: net interest.

gross national product / Bruttosozialprodukt / produit national brut / prodotto nazionale lordo
Abbr.: GNP. Measure of the economic performance of a national economy over a given period of time. See also gross domestic product.

gross operating profit / Bruttogewinn / bénéfice brut / utile lordo
In commercial companies, the gross operating profit corresponds to the net sales revenue minus manufacturing costs for goods sold. For banks, the gross operating profit is the total of net interest income, net fee and commission income, net income from trading operations and other ordinary income after deduction of operating costs.

gross yield / Bruttorendite / rendement brut / rendimento lordo
The income produced by investments (such as securities, real estate property, etc) before any deductions, charges or taxes. Opposite: net yield.

group balance sheet / Konzernbilanz / bilan du groupe / bilancio di gruppo
Consolidated balance sheet of a group of companies, showing combined results with the exception of inter-company participations, supplies, receivables and debts, shipments and services (i.e. purchases and sales) and similar items. A group income statement is prepared together with the consolidated balance sheet. Regulated by Art. 663e ff. of the Swiss Code of Obligations.

Group of Ten / Zehnerclub / Club des Dix / Club dei Dieci
Term applied to the group of ten countries that concluded the General Arrangements to Borrow (1962). International credits are granted in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Switzerland became an associated member of the Club of Ten in 1964 and a full member in 1984.

group / Konzern / groupe / gruppo
Affiliation of legally independent companies in an economic unit under common management by means of financial participation. This structure is normally chosen to strengthen market positions.

growth fund / Wachstumsfonds; Growth-Fund / fonds de croissance / growth fund
Investment fund with an investment policy chiefly oriented towards growth. Such funds place only marginal emphasis on generating a cash yield.

growth rate / Wachstumsrate; Zuwachsrate / taux de croissance / tasso di crescita
The percentage increase in a given value (e.g. real GDP) over a certain period of time (usually one year).

growth stock / Wachstumsaktie; Growth-Stock / action de croissance / azione di crescita
Shares of a corporation which have scored faster-than-average earnings gains and are expected to show high levels of profit growth. As a consequence, they justify a higher P/E ratio but also constitute riskier investments than average equities.

growth-style investing / Growth-Style-Investing / growth-style investing / growth investing
Investment strategy that focuses on companies whose earnings are expected to rise at an above-average rate.

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Gt

GTC / AGB / CG/ CG
(1) Abbr. for General Terms and Conditions as used by the banks.
(2) Abbr. for good-till-cancelled.

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Gu

guarantee / Bürgschaft; Kaution / cautionnement / fideiussione
Also: guaranty. A contractual engagement to answer for the debt, default or failure of another person. The guarantor is obligated in respect of the obligee of a third party (principal debtor or obligor) to pay the debt if the third party fails to perform. The purpose of a guarantee is to secure a claim, mainly in order to raise credit (guaranteed credit).

guarantee credit / Verpflichtungskredit / crédit d'engagement / credito di firma
Bank credit where the bank does not grant funds but incurs liabilities or obligations on behalf of the customer, e.g. bill guarantee, acceptance or surety credit, contingent liability. Opposite: cash loan.

guaranteed bond / garantierte Anleihe / emprunt garanti / prestito garantito
Bond issue for which a third party (e.g. parent company) guarantees fulfillment of the terms vis-à-vis the issuer's creditors.

guaranteed credit / Bürgschaftskredit / crédit contre cautionnement / credito contro fideiussione
Credit which is not secured by real or personal property but by one or several guarantees. In Switzerland, special guarantee cooperatives have been founded for this purpose, e.g. mortgage guarantee cooperatives. The banks usually require joint and several guarantees before granting guaranteed credit.

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